Direct Action to Save the Beagles at Ridglan Farms
On April 18th, hundreds of animal rights activists attempted a large-scale raid to rescue about 2,000 beagles from Ridglan Farms in in southwestern Dane County, Wisconsin. Ridglan Farms is a facility that breeds dogs through brutal and inhumane processes, only to then sell them to biomedical facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and universities for testing and experimentation.
In January 2025, a Dane County judge found probable cause that Ridglan Farms had committed crimes of animal cruelty. However, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate chose not to file charges. Instead, he agreed to a settlement that allows Ridglan Farms to avoid criminal charges if it surrenders its breeding license by July 1, 2026. To date, Ridglan Farms has continued its machinery of cruelty, leading the activists to take matters into their own hands to save the dogs. The action was violently repressed.
Yet, as a result of the activist’s direct action and the attention brought to the issue, two large-scale animal rights nonprofits have recently confirmed a deal to buy 1,500 dogs from Ridglan farms with the hope of delivering them to loving homes. In the following article, Puntorojo’s Kim Gasper-Rabuck talks to an activist involved in the action, who will be referred to as “M.” to protect their identity.
After the April 18th action, I had the opportunity to interview M., a senior at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a Philosophy and Native American-Indigenous Studies double major, and a leader of the “Animal Advocacy” student organization on campus.
M. grew up in a rural area of WI, adjacent to a factory farm, who, aside from treating their animals horribly, knowingly allowed the farm’s manure to infect the surrounding ground and well water, including the water his family used, which made his brother extremely ill. Opposition to factory farming turned M. into a political activist at the age of 12.
Ridglan Torture Farm
Upon learning of the heart wrenching mistreatment of 2000 Beagles at Ridglan Farms, just 20 miles from his university, M. joined in with the organizing effort and became a student leader. Although still in college, M. has been highly involved in the Free Palestine Movement, for women’s and abortion rights, workers’ rights, and anti-ICE work.
According to M. the conditions like for the Beagles are deplorable.
All 2,000 dogs live their entire lives in multi-tiered and bottomless wire cages. As they have no access to grass or opportunity to run, they spin in circles all day inside these small wire cages causing their paws to bleed, blister, and become infected. Furthermore, female dogs are kept endlessly pregnant which damages their health and are euthanized at around 6 years of age. Pups are sold at 5-6 weeks old. Ridglan Farms has been breeding, selling, and mutilating dogs in this manner since 1966.
In 2024, former employees testified about the horrific conditions at the farm as well as painful “cherry eye” surgeries performed routinely by non-veterinarians without anesthesia. I think seeing even a single picture of these animals suffering in these conditions would turn anyone into an animal rights advocate. M. explained the details of the April 18 action and why it garnered national and international attention. As M. explains,
Back in March a group of more than twenty of us were able to enter the Ridglan Farm and rescue two dozen dogs. Most participants were caught and most were arrested. This act of civil disobedience brought huge attention to the plight of these animals and inspired people to understand they too could get involved. The call went out for people to meet at Ridglan and free the dogs from that facility and transport them to shelters and homes. No one expected more than 1000 concerned individuals to show up; but there they were.”
Wayne Hsiung, co-Founder of The Open Heart Initiative (who was arrested and charged at both attempted rescues) is an animal rights activist and an attorney. He communicated to the Dane County Sheriff Department, letting them know the group’s intent to carry out a second direct action to get all the remaining dogs to safety. Therefore, the police were ready and waiting early Saturday morning. The owners of Ridglan spread manure on the perimeter of the building holding the animals to deter us. They encircled the building with enormous hay bales and also dug a trench, hoping to keep the rescuers away from the barb wire topped chain link fence. Activists collectively rolled the hay bales into the ditches and climbed over to attempt to breach the fences to free the dogs.
In addition to the physical barriers, there were private security guards, Mount Horeb Police, Madison Police (including a SWAT Team), and the Dane County Sheriff Department. These cops stood inside the fence shooting chemicals at approaching activists.
State Repression in Defense of the “Right to Profit”
This was the first experience with direct political action for many of the protesters. Despite the hostile reception they all moved towards Ridglan’s, determined to get into the facility. The cops then began firing tear-gas and rubber bullets in rounds every 5-15 minutes. Hundreds were gassed. According to M., who was hit with the gas, he fell to his hands and knees and could not breathe, see or move, and would not have made it out if not for fellow activists having seen that he was down and helped carry him to safety.
One individual was able to cut a hole in the fence, and another was accidentally pushed halfway through the opening. Police mercilessly kicked and pepper sprayed him even as he lay on the ground having lost consciousness. Additionally, they kicked his face with their steel-toed boots, eventually kicking out his front teeth, while another was run over by a police ATV. Many people had to be rushed to the emergency room.
In the end, hundreds suffered from inhaling the gas. Dozens were struck multiple times by rubber-coated metal bullets, and 27 were arrested and several charged with felonies carrying potential 12-year prison sentences.
After the outrageous police violence, many people did not go home to take care of their injuries but rather drove directly to the Dane County Jail in downtown Madison. There, they demand the release of those arrested. This should happen after every case of police brutality! Roughly 20 people were eventually released on Saturday night. The next day, hundreds showed up to the Capital and carried out a sit-in protest in front of Democrat Governor Tony Evers office. They demanded he close the facility and free the dogs. Evers refused to take any action, refusing to meet with the protesters.
These actions matter. Throughout much of the organizing, it was often stated that the act of freeing the dogs was “not political” or it “didn’t matter what your politics are so long as you want to free these animals and see an end to their suffering”. However, Evers and the state of Wisconsin showed the politics behind their inaction.
Abolish Capitalism for People and Planet
According to the capitalist logic they uphold, Ridglan Farms is a private corporation and has a “legal right” to protect its “private property”, including the tortured dogs. Although Ridglan Farms and even had their main veterinarian have his license revoked, the state government does not care to take any punitive action—except against those advocating for the rights of the animals.
Capitalism depends on the ability of capitalists to own and control private property. Producing profit by exploiting and oppressing people and animals alike is the very definition of capitalism. Not only do Evers and the capitalist state defend Ridglan Farms’ legal right to abuse thousands of sentient beings, the rest of the state, including the police, sheriffs, private security firms, etc., actively and purposefully injure hundreds of unarmed individuals to stop them from stopping the torture.
The state will continue to charge individuals with felonies for burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. While the organizers may have gone in thinking human decency would win out, what they experienced is repressive state violence. They got to see for themselves how the system really works—and for whom.
M. hopes those who’ve risked everything will draw political conclusions about the nature of capitalism and the role of the state. He additionally hopes they will draw conclusions about how the US-Israel genocide in Palestine, the attack on bodily autonomy, the abuse of animals, and so many other crimes committed against people and planet, are all outcomes of the same brutal capitalist system that depends on war, repression, and cruelty to extract maximum profit for the small class of parasites that profit from harm—and that the state protects. This is the system we must resist, oppose, and abolish.
Kim Gasper-Rabuck is a former middle school teacher and full-time parent. She has been an activist and organizer who has worked to stop wars, defend abortion, fight police brutality, support strikes, and fight for socialist ideas and organization for the last 35 years.
