BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. — Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), The Beagle Freedom Project, and Rise for Animals today cautiously celebrated the announcement, in the form of a settlement agreement, that Ridglan Farms will relinquish its license to breed and sell beagles for experimentation. The organizations expressed extreme dissatisfaction, however, with terms of the agreement allowing the company to continue breeding and selling dogs for the next eight months. Ridglan Farms, with more than 3,000 beagles in its confinement facility, is the second largest beagle breeding facility in the nation, supplying dogs for invasive, outdated experiments.
Former employees, state veterinarians, and multiple agencies have documented ongoing illegal surgical procedures at Ridglan Farms dating back to 2017. In January 2025, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford determined there was overwhelming evidence of criminal animal cruelty and appointed a special prosecutor to examine the fact pattern. Subsequent inspections confirmed animal abuse went unabated despite orders to remedy the mistreatment. In September 2025, the Wisconsin Veterinary Examining Board suspended the license of Ridglan’s lead veterinarian. Now Ridglan has agreed to surrender its license for beagle breeding, but the inordinately long phaseout will keep dogs in jeopardy for the next eight months.
The deal, announced by the special prosecutor investigating Ridglan for felony animal cruelty, effectively permits the facility to operate through July 1, 2026, prolonging the suffering of hundreds of dogs despite overwhelming evidence of systemic abuse.
“This settlement mercifully starts the unwinding of the second largest beagle breeding confinement operation in the nation,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action. “This is one more important step in our nation turning away from inhumane animal tests that are less reliable and more costly than 21st-century methods grounded on human biology.”
But beagles will continue to suffer through mid-2026 even though authorities recognize that the legal owners of these animals have been delinquent and reckless in their care of these trusting, vulnerable beagles. “The settlement points us in the right direction, but it has a disappointing feature in treating the beagles as inventory rather than dogs in need of rescue,” added Pacelle.
In 2022, federal authorities seized approximately 4,000 beagles from Envigo’s facility after it was found guilty of violating the Animal Welfare Act. Envigo’s corporate parent later pleaded guilty to criminal charges and paid a $35 million penalty. Advocates say Ridglan’s record mirrors Envigo’s and warrants the same decisive action.
“The handling of a different beagle breeding lab – the former Envigo facility in Virginia – provides a model for action,” said Tamara Drake, director of Research & Regulatory Policy for the Center for a Humane Economy. “Working with the Beagle Freedom Project and local organizations, the Center for a Humane Economy is prepared to help adopt out all of these dogs to loving homes immediately.”
“Ridglan Farms should not be rewarded by being given eight more months to profit off the suffering of animals. We stand at the ready as the world’s leading organization in placing dogs who have been the subject of this unique cruelty to rehabilitate and place these dogs where they belong: in loving homes who understand their PTSD,” said Shannon Keith, animal rights attorney and founder of Beagle Freedom Project.
“Ridglan’s decision to stop selling dogs for experimentation is a victory that took relentless pressure from animal lovers who refused to stay silent. But it doesn’t end the cruelty,” said Ed Butler, executive director at Rise for Animals. “We will not stop until Ridglan—and the entire industry that treats living, feeling beings as disposable tools—is gone for good.”
“It’s progress, and that’s good, but we want victory for these beagles,” said Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of Laboratory Investigations for PETA. “It’s time to take all the dogs out of the wire-floored cages where they’re forced to stand in their own waste, unloved and neglected, and place each one in a real home.”
Last week, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy urged La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, the special prosecutor, to proceed with felony charges and seize the dogs.
Ridglan’s decision leaves just one large commercial breeder of beagles for experimentation in the United States – the gargantuan beagle gulag Marshall BioResources in upstate New York. The organizations said that the era of breeding dogs for toxicology testing must come to a rapid end, as modern human-based research models render animal testing obsolete and unethical.
Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, PETA, the Beagle Freedom Project, and Rise for Animals will continue to press for immediate rescue and placement of all dogs currently at Ridglan Farms, and for federal agencies to permanently prohibit funding or contracts with any facility under criminal or animal-welfare investigation.