1,500 beagles will get new lives, warm laps after release from research
facility
[May 04, 2026]
By DAVID FISCHER
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The first beagles removed from a Wisconsin
dog breeding and research facility that was the site of recent protests
seemed to know right away that they were safe.
“They started within an hour or so coming up to us, wanting attention.
Some crawled in people’s laps. Every single one of them are super
sweet,” Lauree Simmons, president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue,
said Sunday. “I think they are loving the attention. I just know they
know they’re safe.”
Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy negotiated a
confidential agreement to purchase the 1,500 dogs for an undisclosed
price from Ridglan Farms, where police used tear gas and pepper spray to
repel activists trying to take beagles from the facility last month.
Protesters also broke into the facility in March and took 30 dogs.
Sixty-three people were referred by the sheriff’s department to the
district attorney for potential charges related to that break-in.
Talks to purchase the animals began months before the April disturbance,
and Simmons said her group wasn't connected to the protests. Now, Big
Dog Ranch Rescue is working with partners all over the country to find
homes for 1,000 of the dogs, while the Center for a Humane Economy is
taking the rest.
Simmons said her group has received over 700 adoption applications, but
it might take some time before the hounds are ready for their new homes
as the organization screens potential dog parents, moves the animals to
shelters around the country and ensures the beagles are housebroken.
The first 300 dogs were taken from Ridglan on Friday, with more
scheduled for removal over the next week. The animal groups have set up
a staging area with play yards in Wisconsin, where the dogs are being
vaccinated, microchipped, spayed or neutered and prepared for transport,
Simmons said. Big Dog Ranch Rescue has already started moving dogs to
its location in western Palm Beach County, Florida.
“The younger dogs will adjust quicker, and the older dogs will take
time,” Simmons said. “A lot of them are more willing to accept love and
want to be with people.”
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This undated photo provided by Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Loxahatchee,
Fla., shows Daisy, one of about 1,500 beagles being removed from
Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin dog breeding and research business. (Big
Dog Ranch Rescue via AP)
Ridglan Farms didn't immediately respond to messages seeking
comment.
Beagles are the most common breed of dog used for animal testing,
primarily because of their smaller size and gentle temperament,
Simmons said.
“A Belgian Malinois is not going to put up with being tested on,
being confined in a kennel their whole life,” Simmons said of the
athletic shepherd dogs commonly used by police and the military.
“Beagles are just so trusting and docile and calm and forgiving, so
they are the most chosen dogs for animal testing. And so we’re going
to take one of the sweetest, kindest, most trusting breeds and abuse
them? This is wrong. This needs to stop.”
Ridglan Farms agreed in October to give up its state breeding
license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on
felony animal mistreatment charges. The firm has denied mistreating
animals, but a special prosecutor determined that Ridglan Farms was
performing eye procedures that violated state veterinary standards.
About 1,000 activists from across the country came to Ridglan Farms
in the rural village of Blue Mounds, about 25 miles (40 kilometers)
southwest of Madison, on April 18 in an attempt to take the beagles.
They were met by police who used tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper
spray. The Dane County Sheriff’s Department said 29 people were
arrested and five face felony burglary charges.
Activists have filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin alleging that
police used unnecessary force. Ridglan has said those who tried to
break in were a “violent mob” who launched “an assault on a
federally licensed research facility.”
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