Ridglan Farms and PETA: A Timeline of Cruelty, Exposure, and Accountability
Ridglan Farms, a massive breeding facility in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, churns out thousands of beagles and sells them to laboratories across the country. Its clients have included Red Beast Enterprises (which absurdly calls itself High Quality Research), the subject of PETA’s 6-month undercover investigation released in 2025, and public institutions such as the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
But PETA and other animal advocates have achieved major progress!
Ridglan Farms agreed to surrender its breeding license rather than face criminal cruelty to animals charges. This came after compassionate animal advocates filed a landmark petition in 2024, urging a Dane County court to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate. PETA’s attorneys advised on a legal pathway allowing citizens to seek a special prosecutor when a district attorney fails to act despite criminal evidence.
The judge agreed, after hearing testimony from former employees, whistleblowers, veterinarians, and others. A special prosecutor was appointed in October 2024.
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture inspectors then confirmed reports that unlicensed staff performed procedures on dogs without pain relief, including cherry-eye surgeries. Facing mounting evidence, Ridglan agreed in October 2025 to surrender its state commercial dog-breeding license by July 2026, ending its ability to breed dogs for laboratory sale and sparing beagles from torment and death in painful experiments.
This hard-won progress is thanks to Direct Action Everywhere, The Simple Heart, Dane4Dogs, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, Alliance for Animals, the Marty Project, Rise for Animals, and a coalition of animal protection groups, including PETA, who united to end Ridglan’s cruelty.
PETA also:
- launched a public pressure campaign urging supporters to contact Ridglan’s customers.
- asked Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to intervene—encouraging thousands to do the same
- secured a letter from actor and Wisconsin native Kristin Bauer van Straten urging officials to save the remaining dogs.
The remaining dogs imprisoned at Ridglan still need your help.
If you’re a U.S. resident, please use this form to politely urge the governor to act now. (Click on “start form” to begin the simple process.) Non-U.S. residents can contact the governor at [email protected].
“Man’s best friend” is bred into misery and sold to the highest bidder.
Ridglan Farms’ History of Dog Abuse, Specifically Gentle Beagles
This puppy farm is the second-largest operation in the U.S. that bred beagle puppies for experimentation—and not surprisingly, it’s riddled with alleged cruelty and neglect. In 2017, animal advocates from Direct Action Everywhere documented dogs confined to stacks of metal cages in a windowless shed. Beagles were kept in filth with untreated wounds, and their feet were red and swollen from standing on wire floors. In 2024, a former Ridglan employee testified that they cut off swollen eyelid glands (a condition known as “cherry eye”) with a pair of scissors without any pain relief or a veterinary license.
Many dogs didn’t even make it out of Ridglan alive. Records revealed that nearly 275 beagles died each year while still at the breeding facility.
What Happened to Dogs If They Survived?
Ridglan Farms is just the beginning of the cruel pipeline—the dogs who do survive the facility’s dismal conditions end up cut open, injected, and/or poisoned in laboratories.
At the University of Missouri, experimenters sickened or killed 40 healthy dogs from Ridglan in tick-vaccine tests in which they glued disease-filled “tick containment chambers” to the dogs’ skin and allowed ticks to feed on them for several days.
At the Illinois Institute of Technology, experimenters forced beagles to inhale an experimental COVID-19 drug before killing them.
University of Wisconsin–Madison Is Ridglan’s Client
According to public records obtained by Rise for Animals and the Marty Project, UW–Madison bought 19 dogs from Ridglan between January 2022 and July 2023. The university experiments on dogs, whose biology is nothing like that of humans, in dozens of painful, ineffective tests.
How a Dog From Ridglan Got a New Beginning, Thanks to PETA
Among the thousands of beagles Ridglan Farms bred and sold to laboratories is Temple. Ridglan shipped Temple off to High Quality Research in Colorado, where a PETA investigator found her cowering in a kennel, shaking in fear. Like he did to all dogs in the laboratory, the facility’s veterinarian cut her vocal cords without giving her any form of pain relief afterward. The laboratory confined Temple and other dogs to chain-link kennels in stark cinderblock rooms nearly 24/7.
Miraculously, PETA got Temple out of there. Two PETA staff members adopted her, and today, she enjoys a life of love, comfort, and care.
Ridglan Is Just One Laboratory-Supplying Hellhole
PETA is at the forefront of shutting this industry down. We have exposed several other seedy laboratory suppliers, including Envigo’s now-shuttered beagle breeding factory, where our undercover investigator documented apparent crimes against animals. After we released our investigator’s findings, Envigo shut down, and officials liberated nearly 4,000 dogs from the facility.
In October 2024, Envigo became the first-ever federally convicted supplier of animals for experimentation after it pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act. A grand jury also indicted Dawn Marie Gau, the former attending veterinarian at Envigo’s dog breeding operation, on 17 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.
PETA’s efforts helped liberate those nearly 4,000 dogs—and with YOUR help, we can stop other lab-supplying prisons like Ridglan, sparing countless animals from lifelong suffering.
Help the Dogs Still Trapped at Ridglan Farms
Dogs belong in loving homes, not laboratory cages waiting for the next cut or injection. Please urge the governor of Wisconsin to immediately direct state authorities to release the dogs imprisoned at Ridglan Farms to reputable shelters and rescue organizations.
If you’re a U.S. resident, please use this form to politely urge the governor to direct state authorities to intervene and release the dogs to reputable shelters and rescue organizations.
Then, please also urge institutions that purchase dogs from Ridglan to reconsider their business relationships with the disgraced facility and refocus their resources on human-relevant, animal-free research methods.
