Animal rescue group says it bought 1,500 beagles from Wisconsin facility targeted by protesters

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Animal refuge groups said Wednesday that they have agreed to buy nearly 1,500 beagles at a Wisconsin dog breeding and research business that was the site of a violent clash earlier this month between activists trying to break in and police who repelled them with tear gas and pepper spray.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy said they have entered into a confidential agreement with Ridglan Farms to buy 1,500 of the facility’s roughly 2,000 beagles for an undisclosed price. It’s unclear what the plans are for the remaining dogs.

Ridglan Farms did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

“It’s a very big win and I am ecstatic to have these dogs out and get them into loving homes,” Lauree Simmons, president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, told The Associated Press.

Simmons said she could not discuss the payment for the dogs, how long the deal had been in the works or how many beagles remain at Ridglan after the deal.

The 1,500 dogs will be transported later this week from Ridglan to partner agencies as well as to Big Dog Ranch Rescue facilities in Florida and Alabama, Simmons said. They will receive medical exams, microchips and vaccinations before they are assessed for adoption, she said.

“These dogs need to learn to walk on a leash,” Simmons said. “They need to learn to live in a home environment, be housebroken, spayed and neutered.”

But even if they don’t work out at their adopted homes, they can always come back to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, Simmons said. Big Dog Ranch Rescue says its facility in Loxahatchee, Florida, is the largest cage-free, no-kill dog rescue operation in the country.

Animal activists have been pushing for 10 years to have the dogs at Ridglan Farms adopted, not sold to other research facilities.

Simmons said her group was not involved in the recent protests that drew increased attention on Ridglan, but she credited activists with raising awareness about what was happening.

“What they did was put the message out,” Simmons said of the activists. “What we did, we wanted to do legally and in the best way and for the best outcome of these dogs for the future.”

About 1,000 activists from across the country came to Ridglan Farms in rural Blue Mounds in an attempt on April 18 to take the beagles kept there about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison. They were met by police who repelled them with 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 filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin last week alleging that police used unnecessary force to repel those trying to break into the facility and take the dogs. Ridglan has said those who tried to break in were a “violent mob” who launched “an assault on a federally licensed research facility.”

In March, activists broke into Ridglan and left with 30 beagles. Sixty-three people were referred from the sheriff’s department to the district attorney for potential charges related to that break in.

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. Ridglan Farms has denied mistreating animals, but a special prosecutor determined that Ridglan Farms was performing eye procedures on the dogs that violated state veterinary standards.