On January 9, 2025, Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford said she would appoint a special prosecutor to pursue animal mistreatment and cruelty charges against a Blue Mounds dog breeder company that breeds beagles for vivisection.
The 23-page decision for the appointment of a special prosecutor is “to investigate alleged violations of Wisconsin’s animal cruelty laws by Ridglan Farms, Inc., a commercial dog breeding facility located in Dane County, Wisconsin.” This was necessary because local officials, including the district attorney, declined to take action against the facility despite years of complaints from animal rights activists.
The judge said the activists who asked for this special prosecutor presented enough evidence to pursue felony and misdemeanour charges against Ridglan Farm for conducting medical procedures on dogs without anaesthesia and failing to provide the animals with appropriate living conditions. In October 2024, the petitioners produced the following witnesses to argue their case: Wayne Hsiung (animal cruelty investigator and attorney), Scott Gilbertson (former Ridglan employee and whistleblower), Matthew Reich (former Ridglan employee and whistleblower), Dr Marc Bekoff (expert witness; biologist and animal behaviourist), Dr Lowell Wickman (expert witness; veterinarian), and Dr Sherstin Rosenberg (expert witness; veterinarian).
Lanford wrote that staff removed protruding glands from dogs’ eyes to prevent a condition called “cherry eye” and lowered the volume of their barking by “mutilating” their vocal flaps.
Steffen Seitz, a litigation fellow with the University of Denver’s Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, said in a statement, “When you cage thousands of dogs in a warehouse, never let them outside, and provide them essentially no social interaction, all in order to sell them to animal experimenters for profit, cruelty is baked into the business model… Dogs should be home with family, not locked in cages or treated like test tubes.”
Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA Vice President, said, “PETA applauds Judge Lanford for appointing a special prosecutor to investigate massive beagle-breeder Ridglan Farms and congratulates Dane4Dogs, Wayne Hsiung, and Alliance for Animals for exposing the appalling conditions there, where beagles are imprisoned in circumstances strikingly similar to those uncovered at the now-closed Envigo beagle-breeding facility…We hope this investigation results in prosecution and jail time.”
Help Make Animal Testing History: https://veganfta.com/take-action/animals-used-for-research/
