Ridglan Farms To End Beagle Sales, Leaving A Loophole For Continued Testing

After years of documented cruelty, Ridglan Farms, in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of beagles for experimentation, has announced that it will stop selling animals to research laboratories by July 1, 2026. This long-overdue decision could signal the beginning of the end for the dog-breeding factory farm.

While Ridglan Farms has agreed to stop selling beagles for external scientific studies and will surrender its Wisconsin breeding license, a dangerous loophole remains, one that could allow suffering to continue behind closed doors. Advocates warn that unless Ridglan is fully and permanently shut down, the facility may continue exploiting dogs under the guise of so-called “in-house” research.

Ridglan Farms, which has bred and sold beagles for scientific research since 1966, has long been synonymous with animal suffering. Its impending closure follows years of investigations, legal challenges, and relentless public pressure demanding an end to its cruel practices.

The fight to expose Ridglan began in 2017, when investigators from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) revealed shocking footage showing dogs confined in barren metal cages, some spinning endlessly in distress. Among the rescued dogs was Julie, a blind beagle puppy who experienced love and freedom for the first time after being liberated from the lab.

Instead of addressing the cruelty, Ridglan pushed prosecutors to file felony charges against the rescuers. Thankfully, the plan backfired. Just days before the trial, the company, fearing public outrage, asked that the charges be dropped.

In recent years, The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, Dane4Dogs, Alliance for Animals Wisconsin, The Simple Heart, The Marty Project, and the White Coat Waste Project have fought tirelessly to hold Ridglan accountable. Their persistence paid off when Wisconsin’s Veterinary Examining Board voted unanimously to suspend the license of Ridglan’s primary veterinarian for authorizing untrained employees to perform painful surgeries without anesthesia.

The final blow came just as a special prosecutor was preparing to file criminal charges for animal cruelty, Ridglan announced it would simply shut down its outsourcing operation instead.

“The forthcoming closing of Ridlgan’s barbaric beagle mill is major progress, but the federal government can and should take action to immediately stop any tax dollars from flowing there directly or indirectly. White Coat Waste’s investigations have directly tied Ridglan to some of the country’s most atrocious taxpayer-funded dog labs, including experiments in which beagle puppies bought from Ridglan are denied pain relief while being infested with mutant ticks and tormented in muscular dystrophy tests. Unfortunately, funding for cruel experiments on Ridglan beagles was recently renewed by the National Institutes of Health and unless NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and his animal testing czar Nicole Kleinstreuer act, taxpayers will be forced to subsidize Ridglan’s atrocious puppy mill for another eight months,” Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Public Policy for White Coat Waste Project, told WAN.

Every year, around 40,000 dogs, mostly gentle, trusting beagles, are used in U.S. experiments. They are force-fed chemicals, subjected to toxic inhalation tests, or surgically mutilated without pain relief.

Aside from Ridglan, only a handful of large-scale research dog breeders remain, including Marshall Farms in New York and Oak Hill Genetics in Illinois.

While the announcement marks a major step forward, Ridglan Farms’ ability to continue experimenting on dogs means the cruelty isn’t over yet. Every dog still deserves freedom, compassion, and a real home, not a lifetime in a cage.

Sign the petition today to demand a complete and permanent shutdown of Ridglan Farms. Together, we can close this chapter of suffering for good and ensure that no more dogs are born into lives of pain and neglect. SIGN HERE!