Blue Mounds, Wisconsin – Animal lovers are rejoicing with news that 1500 beagles at the Ridglan Farms breeding facility are being released. The dogs are being purchased by two non-profit rescue groups, and they will no longer be at risk of being sold for scientific research.
Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy came together to pull off the massive advocacy win. The groups have not disclosed how much money is being paid to the large-scale breeding operation, but Lara Trump, who is on the board of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, previously mentioned $1 million being offered to Ridglan Farms.
Activists recently broke into the Wisconsin facility and freed dozens of beagles. As reported by Yahoo, there are an estimated 2000 beagles at Ridglan and it is unclear what will happen to the 500 dogs not included in the rescue groups’ purchase.
Ridglan historically operated as both a large-scale commercial breeder of beagles for the biomedical research industry and a licensed research facility, supplying thousands of dogs to pharmaceutical companies, universities, and contract testing laboratories while also conducting a smaller portion of studies on-site under veterinary supervision. The facility has long been part of the upstream pipeline for animal research in the United States, specializing in breeding dogs with consistent genetics and health profiles for use in safety testing and other experiments.
Ridglan Farms has been under ongoing scrutiny for concerning conditions at their facility. To avoid facing criminal charges, they agreed to surrender their breeding license by July 1, 2026, but they will still be able to do research on the dogs on site.
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