What Happened When 1,000 Protesters Tried to Free Beagles

Quick Take

• Protesters publicly announced their raid for Sunday but then launched it on Saturday. The reason behind that switch changed everything. See how timing shifted →
• Just a month before the 1,000-person standoff, a smaller group attempted the same thing at Ridglan Farms, and the outcome was very different. Read about the prior raid →

Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, is the type of place that families go to for a weekend getaway. Located about 25 miles southwest of Madison, the village features rolling hills, deep valleys, and even scenic rock faces. Amongst those quiet hills sits Ridglan Farms. From the outside, it looks like any other vaguely agricultural facility. According to animal rights activists, however, it’s the view from the inside that people deserve to know about—one that shows thousands of beagles allegedly being mistreated for animal testing purposes.

Last weekend, about 1,000 animal rights activists descended upon the Ridglan Farms to free the hundreds of beagles kept there for research and animal testing. However, the protest did not go as planned. Before protesters could gain entry to the facility, they were pushed back by authorities. Police fired rubber bullets at the crowd, employed pepper spray, and arrested the group’s leader. This is one of the more contentious animal stories in recent memory. It highlights the divide between activists and animal testing organizations, as well as the laws that, according to protesters, allow animal cruelty to continue unimpeded.

Charging the Gates

On Saturday, April 18th, nearly 1,000 protesters and animal activists gathered outside the Ridglan Farms facility. Spearheaded by a group called the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs, the crowd gathered for one reason: to free the beagles kept captive inside the facility, which are used for animal testing and other practices that activists say border on abuse.

Not long after the group had arrived, it started making moves. First, protesters attempted to overcome a series of barricades, including hay bales, a manure-filled trench, and a barbed-wire fence. Some managed to break through the fence but failed to gain entry into the actual facility, which houses an estimated 2,000 beagles. The group used social media to publicize their planned dog-seizure protest for Sunday, but actually launched the operation a day early.

Pepper Spray and Rubber Bullets

In response, police did their best to quell the growing unrest. In a video statement, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett chastised the protesters. He said that they ignored areas designated for peaceful protest and blocked roads, which prevented emergency vehicles from entering the area. He added that 300 to 400 protesters were aggressively trying to break into the property. “This is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said.

Nor was the police response peaceful, as officers launched a volley of rubber bullets and pepper spray at the protesters. By the end of the day, the sheriff’s department had arrested what they called a significant number of the 1,000 protesters. However, they did not provide an exact total, as many were still being processed in the afternoon; some reports put the number of arrests at 25. They also managed to arrest the group’s leader, Wayne Hsiung, who posted a picture of his arrest to social media.

Pressure Remains

Various media outlets were on the scene during the length of the confrontation. “I just feel defeated,” activist Julie Vrzeski told the Wisconsin State Journal. This is because the protest ended without any dogs being successfully removed from the facility.

A few hours later, dozens of activists could be seen protesting outside the main jail in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Police also arrested a person who drove a pickup truck through the facility’s front gate, an action they say prevented “a potentially deadly outcome.”

The group’s leader, 44-year-old Wayne Hsiung of New York, was being held on a “tentative felony charge of conspiracy to commit burglary.” The majority of arrested protesters, however, were simply booked and released.

Where There Is Smoke

Last weekend’s protest comes just a month after a previous raid on the Ridglan Farms facility. During the March raid, protesters managed to break into the facility and take 23 dogs, which led to the arrest of 27 people. The group, however, remains unapologetic in its pursuit.

In a statement made from jail on Sunday, Hsiung accused authorities of using excessive force. “No one should be assaulted for giving aid to a dog, even if damage to property is part of that rescue effort,” he said, adding: “The animals of this Earth are not ‘things.’ They’re sentient beings. And we have the right to rescue them from abuse.”

Perhaps Hsiung has a point. Beagles are routinely chosen for animal testing because of their docile, forgiving nature and small size, which makes them easy to house in small cages. To make matters worse, Ridglan Farms agreed last year to give up its state breeding license by July 2026 to avoid prosecution for animal mistreatment charges. This strengthens the protesters’ central question: why is even a single cage still occupied today?