Activists Tear-Gassed at Failed Raid of Beagle Research Facility

Some 1,000 protesters tried to storm a private breeding and lab facility in Wisconsin in an effort to steal thousands of beagles that are bred for medical experimentation.

By Katie Benner and Taylor Glascock

April 18, 2026

Hundreds of animal rights activists in Wisconsin were thwarted by the police and private security guards as they tried to steal thousands of beagles from a facility that breeds them for sale to research labs and for experiments done on site.

Officers and guards fired tear gas and rubber bullets on the estimated 1,000 protesters, witnesses said, to keep them from entering the facility, Ridglan Farms, a state-licensed dog breeder. Ridglan breeds beagles for biomedical research aimed at improving veterinary medicine. The company has denied that it abuses animals.

The raid on Ridglan Farms had been planned for weeks, allowing the facility and the police to prepare for what protesters deemed a civil action.

Activists said that at least 26 people were arrested. Elise Schaffer, a spokeswoman for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, said that officers recovered tools from the activists that could have been used to break into the building, but no dogs were taken.

Wayne Hsiung, the founder of Direct Action Everywhere, left, was arrested upon arrival to the protest, which drew hundreds of activists to the research facility.Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times


The protesters, organized by the national animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, successfully broke into Ridglan Farms on March 15 and took 22 beagles, which were subsequently adopted.

Last fall, a special prosecutor found that Ridglan Farms, about 30 miles outside Madison, the state capital, had performed experiments on the beagles that constituted animal mistreatment. But he let the company avoid prosecution on condition that it surrender its breeding license by July 1, which would end its ability to sell dogs to outside labs.

The company can continue to perform experiments on its beagles, even though former employees testified that the dogs had undergone eye surgeries without general anesthesia.

Wayne Hsiung, founder of Direct Action Everywhere, said in an online post in March that he sought 2,000 people willing to gather at Ridglan Farms this month and “use every nonviolent means to breach the facility walls and rescue the dogs.” The village of Blue Mounds, site of the Ridglan facility, has a population of less than 1,000.

The plan for a second raid prompted the Dane County Sheriff’s Office to bring in reinforcements, including police from the Wisconsin villages of Oregon and Black Earth, state troopers and Ridglan’s own private security force, Ms. Schaffer said. Organizers tried to work with Ridglan Farms to find new homes for the beagles, but were unsuccessful. A company spokesman said that individuals have asked the company about buying the dogs, but declined further comment.

A phalanx of officers awaited the protesters, who arrived at Ridglan Farms on Saturday morning dressed in all black or clad in white lab jumpsuits, and law enforcement personnel announced over loudspeakers that trespassers would be arrested.

At around 9 a.m., the police arrested Mr. Hsiung before he entered the site, saying that they had probable cause. The scene quickly devolved afterward as the police arrested protesters who had breached the fencing around the property.

Activists with ladders trying to get over a fence and police officers guarding a fence line.Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

“Only a deeply corrupt system will use tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful activists saving dogs,” Mr. Hsiung said in a statement from jail. He was charged with burglary.

Ms. Schaffer said that the protesters had been warned that they would be tear-gassed, a caution that some said they had not heard.

At approximately 10 a.m., someone plowed a pickup truck through Ridglan Farms’ front gate and was arrested by the police.

A spokesman for Ridglan Farms said that the activists had tried to break in repeatedly from all sides of the research facility.

He declined to comment on the law enforcement actions.

Photographs from the scene show officers pointing rifles at a protester lying on the ground. Jenny McQueen, who drove from Toronto with her husband and half a dozen other Canadians to get the dogs out, said that officers began throwing tear gas canisters over the fence almost immediately after 9 a.m. Ms. McQueen said she was pepper-sprayed in the face.

“As I was filming, I saw police with rifles and ammo whizzed past me,” Ms. McQueen said, adding that she did not hear officers warn protesters before they fired. “I saw a women get shot in the shoulder with a rubber bullet.”

The protest had been planned for weeks, allowing the police to prepare. State troopers supplemented the local response. Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

Officers kicked and beat a man as he tried to enter through a hole in the fence, and then they pulled him through. The man, whom organizers identified as Nicholas Dickman, was arrested. A photograph shows him lying on the ground, face bloodied, with missing teeth.

Jennifer Ozanne, a protester who traveled from California to try to take the beagles, arrived at 8:45 a.m. to find that hay bales had been placed to stop people from nearing the fence, which was topped with barbed wire. She said she saw protesters pepper-sprayed and shot with rubber bullets.

“The Dane County Sheriff’s Office response to the active break-in attempts by hundreds of protesters was appropriate and proportionate to the behaviors observed,” Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a statement.


Katie Benner is a correspondent writing primarily about large institutions that shape American life.