A controversial U.S. dog breeder at the centre of a police showdown with activists attempting to free the animals last month is releasing 1,500 dogs to animal welfare organizations.
Ridglan Farms, a massive Wisconsin-based dog breeding operation featured in a recent report by the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB), has produced thousands of beagles for scientific research amid allegations of inhumane treatment. Some of those dogs have been imported to Canada for use in experimentation.
The move to release the animals comes after a criminal investigation in the U.S. and new proposed legislation in Ontario that seeks to ban most research involving dogs and cats.
On April 18, around 1,000 protestors, some armed with saws and sledgehammers, marched to Ridglan Farms to rescue the approximately 2,000 dogs inside, according to a police statement. After climbing over manure-filled trenches and bales of hay, they reached a barbed-wire fence where they were met by a phalanx of police and armed security.
“That was just a wild experience,” said Jenny McQueen, a Toronto-based animal activist who said she was pepper-sprayed and narrowly dodged rubber bullets at the protest. “It’s like your face is burning…I was in awful pain for hours that day.”
Ridglan Farms issued a written statement calling the incident an assault on “a veterinary medicine research facility dedicated to improving the health of our pet animals,” which “followed months of harassment of our employees and customers.”
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office, which led the response to the incident, said the rescue attempt was not a “peaceful protest” and that “resorting to crime, chaos, and violence is not the solution.”
Last week, Ridglan agreed to release 1,500 dogs to Florida-based Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy for an undisclosed price, a move touted as a victory by animal rights advocates.
The beagles, born and raised in Ridglan’s massive facilities, must now be socialized to adjust to lives as pets.
Ridglan had earlier stopped dog breeding operations after a criminal investigation into animal cruelty allegations, as previously reported by the IJB. In October 2025, the breeder reached a deal with Wisconsin’s special prosecutor that stipulated it would make “no admission of fault or criminal or civil liability” but would surrender its dog-selling license.
Toronto, a beagle from Ridglan Farms is examined by lab technicians.
In a recent statement to the IJB, Ridglan said allegations against it have “never been confirmed in any judicial proceeding.”
“In over a decade of federal inspections – which is the gold standard in the United States – only one minor animal issue was identified after inspectors repeatedly visited and assessed thousands of animals,” wrote Ridglan spokesperson Jim Newman.
Separate IJB reporting revealed Ridglan had been selling dogs to Nucro-Technics, a private research company in Toronto that bills itself as Canada’s largest contract research organization, employing more than 170 scientific support staff in a 60,000 square foot facility.
Nucro-Technics has repeatedly declined to respond to IJB questions about its use of dogs from Ridglan.
Some researchers say the latest developments are a sign that the research industry needs to evolve in step with public opinion.
“Ridglan isn’t just a facility failure, it’s a systems failure,” said Charu Chandrasekera, founder of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, who advocates for a transition to non-animal research models.
“Animals suffer because the scientific community views animal biology as similar enough to be useful, but different enough to be expendable,” Chandrasekera said. “We need an ethical framework with clear limits on harm and a meaningful weighing of harm against benefit rooted in the modern understanding of animal sentience.”
While Ridglan is now freeing its dogs, some cautioned that open rescue operations are unacceptable.
“Aggressive approaches to legal activities are not appropriate,” said Paula Clifford, executive director of Americans for Medical Progress, which advocates for using animals in medical research. “It was an illegal approach to address a legal situation.”
She maintains the industry has robust protocols to ensure the welfare of the animals, but that the research community must increase transparency.
“We need to do a better job in sharing why exactly the animals are needed,” she said. “Although there are some areas where animals can be replaced, there are lots of areas where animals are essential if we want to continue medical progress.”
Ontario’s proposed Bill 75, triggered by the IJB’s reporting into a secretive dog testing program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ont., last August, seeks to ban the use of dogs and cats in invasive scientific research and prohibit breeding dogs and cats for research purposes.
The Lawson Research Institute at St Joseph’s announced days after the first report was published it would “immediately cease research studies involving dogs” following consultation with the province.
Speaking before a provincial parliamentary committee on Bill 75 on April 15, Camille Labchuk, executive director of animal rights organization Animal Justice, said Canada has “some of the worst animal protection laws in the world…especially for animals used in laboratory experiments.”
She called the bill a “big step forward” in oversight and protections for dogs and cats being used in “horrific, painful experiments….The proposed law has the potential to send a ripple effect across the country.”
The Queen’s Park committee voted down proposed amendments championed by Animal Justice, including banning all invasive testing in addition to medical research, such as cosmetics product testing.
This story was also published in the London Free Press.
