Animal rights activists storm Dane County dog breeding facility

Hundreds of animal rights activists raided a controversial Wisconsin dog breeding and testing facility in Dane county Saturday morning, one day ahead of the expected protest.

Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett reported 300 to 400 violent activists attempting to break into Ridglan Farms in Blue Mounds. 

Barrett said activists had “break-in tools and were cutting through the fence.” 

“I want to be very clear, this is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said in a Facebook video. “We have given warnings verbally, and have signs clearly identifying where they can peacefully protest, and they have ignored those signs and have come into the property and are actively causing a disturbance and chaos in our Dane County community.”

Ridglan Farms is one of the country’s largest breeders of beagles for scientific, biomedical and veterinary research. None of the dogs were removed from the facility on Saturday.

As part of a court settlement last year to avoid prosecution, Ridglan Farms has until July 1 to sell or remove its remaining dogs. The facility’s state breeding license will no longer hold after that deadline. Another sector of the facility, which does direct research, is licensed separately and will continue.

The settlement followed a special prosecutor’s investigation launched in January 2025, which came after years of effort from animal rights activists to shutter what they describe as one of the country’s three largest breeders of beagles for research.

Madison resident Amy Van Aartsen is with the Marty Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for not using animals for research.

She said Wayne Hsiung, a long-time animal rights activist, was trying to serve Ridglan Farms with court papers related to the lawsuit Saturday morning when police immediately arrested him.

Online jail records show that Hsiung was booked into the Dane County Jail at around 9:45 a.m. for conspiracy to commit burglary.

“There was numerous law enforcement there with tear gas, many people were also hit with rubber bullets,” Aartsen said. “The police response was just really devastating and disappointing.”

According to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office Sunday morning, “a significant number of arrests were made.”

In a statement Saturday night, Ridgelan Farms said if any participants, their supporters or police were injured it was Hsiung’s fault, who “organized, egged on and then led hundreds of individuals in a violent assault on a veterinary medicine research facility dedicated to improving the health of our pet animals.”

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