Ridglan Beagles

There are currently approximately 2,000 beagles being held at a puppy mill and biomedical facility in Wisconsin called Ridglan Farms, where they are subjected to cruelty. 

About the beagles

At Ridglan Farms, in Dane County, Wisconsin, approximately 2,000 beagles, dogs and puppies, are currently trapped inside of windowless warehouses, without access to the outdoors or natural light. They are forced to spend their entire lives inside small metal crates stacked on top of one another. 

The beagles at Ridglan are used for breeding with their puppies sold to biomedical research facilities across the country. A minority of the dogs are kept on-site and used for biomedical research at Ridglan. 

Inspection records from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) cite violations to Wisconsin law dating back to 2016. In a DATCP inspection report from 2022, the inspector wrote that “the ammonia / odor level in several locations was bad enough that [he] experienced nausea on one occasion, and [his] throat and nostrils were irritated for several hours after [he] left the facility.”

In March, 2024 local animal activist organization, Dane4Dogs, formed a coalition with Alliance for Animals, and the Colorado-based Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, to petition the court to appoint a special prosecutor to prosecute Ridglan Farms for animal cruelty. The court held a hearing in October, 2024, during which evidence of ongoing cruelty violations were presented by witnesses—including first-hand accounts from two former employees of Ridglan. Witnesses cited a lack of proper veterinary treatment and health checks, routine injuries from sharp, rusted cage wires, and routine surgeries on the beagles without anesthesia or post-operative pain relief. One former employee testified that beagles at Ridglan were given a paralytic agent and subjected to “frequent” devocalization surgeries (removal of a dog’s vocal chords)—a practice strongly discouraged by the American Veterinary Medical Association—without anesthesia or pain relief. 

The beagles at Ridglan have been subjected to cruel conditions in violation of Wisconsin’s anti-cruelty statutes and standard veterinary practices. In February 2025, an investigator from the Wisconsin Veterinary Examining Board (VEB) conducted an unannounced inspection of Ridglan and interviewed several current employees. The employees confirmed the ongoing use of cherry eye surgeries, which involve the removal of a prolapsed third eyelid gland. Cherry eye surgeries are not a normal or accepted veterinary practice and in the rare circumstances where they are appropriate to perform—for example, to remove a cancerous eye gland—they must be done by a licensed veterinarian. The VEB found that these surgeries were being performed by non-veterinarians with “no anesthetic, pain control, or after-care administered.” The VEB ultimately suspended the license of Ridglan’s veterinarian, Richard Van Domelen, and yet Mr. Van Domelen remains at Ridglan as facility manager.

Available evidence indicates that Ridglan subjects beagles to abhorrent conditions, including:

• Subjecting beagles to unnecessary euthanasia for business reasons.
• Failing to provide adequate space and enrichment, resulting in chronic psychological distress and exhibition of stress-induced stereotypic behaviors including spinning, pacing, and wall bouncing.
• Confining dogs in wire cages where the plastic coating has worn away, exposing rusted and sharp metal that routinely causes foot injuries, including ulcers and ruptured interdigital cysts. 
• Failing to provide adequate veterinary care by failing to conduct routine health checks and failing to properly treat injuries. 
• Failing to provide adequate ventilation, resulting in ammonia levels so severe that government inspectors experienced nausea, throat irritation, and nasal irritation for hours after leaving the facility.
• Failing to maintain proper sanitation, with stagnant puddles of excreta, accumulation of feces in cages, and a film of organic waste material present throughout the facility.

About Ridglan Farms

Ridglan Farms, Inc. is a biomedical breeding and research company that has been the subject of documented reports of animal cruelty spanning several decades. 

In January, 2025, a Dane County Judge appointed a special prosecutor, DA Tim Gruenke, to investigate and determine whether to charge Ridglan Farms with animal cruelty—the first of two major wins for local advocacy organizations who had advocated for the appointment of a special prosecutor. The second win came in October, 2025 when Gruenke announced Ridglan agreed to voluntarily relinquish its state license to sell dogs by July 1, 2026 in order to avoid criminal prosecution. 

Unfortunately, the prosecutor determined that many of the requested remedies such as removing the dogs were “simply not available” under the criminal process. As a result of that determination, the agreement allows the beagles to remain at Ridglan and provides no protections or remedies for the dogs suffering in cruel conditions between now and July 1, 2026. Nor does it provide for any measures to protect any dogs that may remain at Ridglan after July 1st without a state license.

In January 2026, the NhRP filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of the approximately 2,000 beagle dogs and puppies being held in cruel conditions at biomedical company Ridglan Farms, Inc., asking the court to recognize their right to be free from cruelty under Wisconsin law.