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Freed Ridglan Farms beagles adjust; activists plan second raid
Twenty-two beagle puppies are scattered across the country, far from the facility that bred them to become science experiments. Animal rights groups call it a rescue. Ridglan Farms calls it a crime.
DANE COUNTY, Wis. - Twenty-two beagle puppies are now scattered across the country, far away from the facility that bred them to become science experiments. Animal rights groups call it a rescue. Ridglan Farms calls it a crime.
Bred for science
What we know:
Animal rights groups arranged for the FOX6 Investigators to meet 8-month-old Ivy at a temporary location. She is one of the nearly two dozen beagles carried out of Ridglan Farms on March 15 by people like a college professor from Kohler, who said she's never done anything like this before.
Ivy is one of 22 beagles removed from Ridglan Farms by animal rights activists on March 15, 2026. She is currently being cared for at an undisclosed location.
Since Ivy was born in summer 2025, the purebred beagle has had no access to sunlight, no yard to play in, she did not even have a name beyond the code tattooed inside her right ear.
The storming of Ridglan Farms set Ivy free. Video recorded by activists and made available to news media shows that by the time police got wind of the break-in, the scene had already descended into chaos.
Activist speaks
What they're saying:
Right in the middle of it was Kate Prange of Kohler.
"Even my parents are like, what are you thinking?" Prange told FOX6 Investigators.
Kate Prange
Prange is an associate professor of graphic design at Lakeland University in Sheboygan County. She only recently learned Ridglan Farm exists.
"And I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s like 2 hours from where I live,'" Prange said.
Commercial breeder in Dane County
The backstory:
For 60 years, the commercial breeder in western Dane County has sold beagles to laboratories where they are used to test things like the maximum lethal dose of a new drug, or the effectiveness of a new vaccine. While those experiments are controversial, they are also legal.
A Dane County Sheriff's Office deputy is surrounded by activists in the road outside Ridglan Farms. The deputy was attempting to remove the beagles from a transport van which activists had loaded with animals they had just taken from inside a Ridglan …
But in early 2025, Dane County Judge Rhonda Lanford found probable cause that Ridglan had committed crimes of animal cruelty, by allowing unlicensed staff to perform surgeries on the dogs without anesthesia.
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Judge Lanford appointed a special prosecutor from another county to investigate. But instead of filing criminal charges, that special prosecutor cut a deal, allowing Ridglan and its owners to avoid charges if they close the breeding operation for good by summer 2026.
Special prosecutor weighs in
Dig deeper:
La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke spoke at the time on the FOX6 podcast, Open Record.
"You felt criminal charges were warranted, correct?" asked FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn during the podcast.
"Yes, I should mention off the top they remain innocent until proven guilty," Gruenke answered.
Gruenke said he had no authority to seize the more than 2,000 dogs still at Ridglan Farms because the crimes he was tasked with investigating had occurred in the past.
"There wasn't an ongoing situation where animals were being tortured, being abused, that we needed to save the animals today," Gruenke said.
Animal rights supporters take action
What we know:
Animal rights crusader Wayne Hsiung took matters into his own hands. He publicly advertised plans for a so-called "open rescue" – and Prange signed up to help, even if it meant she could go to jail.
"It is not just our moral duty, it is our legal right to give aid to animals in distress," said Wayne Hsiung, The Simple Heart.
A member of the so-called "red team" of animal rights activists removes a beagle from a cage inside a Ridglan Farms breeding building.
"If I don’t do something to help this situation, what kind of a person am I?" Prange said.
Volunteers take action
Timeline:
As volunteers gathered in Madison on March 15 for what they thought was a dress rehearsal, Prange's team had already breached the farm's perimeter fence. They live-streamed their effort to bust open the doors. For several minutes, their efforts failed.
"We just stood there and thought, we’re never going to get them," Prange said.
Wayne Hsiung, organizer of the "open rescue" operation attempts to pry open a door on a Ridglan Farms building.
Eventually, Hsiung grabbed a sledgehammer and smashed through a vent fan, allowing others to climb inside.
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Lisa Castognozzi was there to help carry the dogs out.
"It was like a movie scene," Castognozzi said. "One came out a window, I grabbed it."
Lisa Castognozzi, Free From Harm
One by one, the activists plucked beagles from their cages, slung them over their shoulders, and made the long trek back to the nearest public road.
What they're saying:
The hardest part, Prange said, was leaving so many dogs behind.
"If I could erase this memory, I would," Prange said. "Those little eyes just waiting and wanting someone to pick them up and take them out of there."
Prange carried one of the dogs to a transport van waiting on the road, and then she saw a sheriff's deputy removing a cage from the back of the van, and tried to stop her.
"All I could think about at that moment was save that dog," Prange said.
Dane County Sheriff announcement
What they're saying:
Hours later, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett made an announcement.
"Based off of our information, at this point, all of those dogs were recovered," Barrett said.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett
What the sheriff did not yet know was that activists had surrounded a pickup truck, allowing just enough room for at least two of the vans to get away.
Ridglan Farms makes public appeal
What we know:
Ridglan Farms declined FOX6 Investigators' request for an on-camera interview for this story.
But on the day of the break-in, spokesman Jim Newman had a public appeal.
"We're certainly disappointed," Newman said. "While you may have concerns about dogs being involved in research, I think we can all agree that attacking family farms, going after research labs that are studying cures for cancer, et cetera, that should be of concern to all of us."
Jim Newman, Ridglan Farms spokesman
Activists detained, arrested
Dig deeper:
Dane County deputies initially detained or arrested more than two dozen people. Five spent the night in jail before they were released.
Deputies returned eight beagles to Ridglan. Twenty-two others got away, including Ivy, who is still learning to navigate life outside a cage.
Another planned "rescue?"
What's next:
Less than a week after his release from the Dane County Jail, Hsiung published a "new" plan to break into Ridglan Farms again. This time, he said he wants to send 2,000 people in for the 2,000 dogs still inside. "They can't arrest and jail us all," Hsiung wrote.
Ridglan calls the plan "dangerous and unlawful."
After declining multiple requests for an on-camera interview, Ridglan Farms sent FOX6 Investigators the following statements:
Ridglan Farms complete statements
On the allegations that led to the March 15 break-in
"While animal activists have made numerous allegations about Ridglan Farms - a federally licensed health research facility conducting studies that directly benefit dogs - no credible evidence of animal cruelty has ever been presented or substantiated. Nor has any court, agency or investigator ever made a finding of animal cruelty. In fact, the special prosecutor who led the investigation of our facility has publicly referenced significant amounts of misinformation and untrue claims about Ridglan Farms. His investigators also determined the witnesses behind these claims 'lacked credibility.'"
On any future illegal actions targeting Ridglan Farms
"Moving forward, we believe news reports about any upcoming illegal activities planned at our facility are likely to place law enforcement, citizens, activists and animals in harm’s way. Extremists are attempting to convince otherwise well-meaning individuals to join them in dangerous and unlawful actions that will likely lead to jail time, court proceedings, significant legal fees and criminal records. Those extremists aggressively seek media coverage to help recruit participants in their illegal actions. We encourage tremendous caution in doing anything that might amplify these efforts."
The Source: FOX6 Investigators referenced court filings, interviews and prior coverage. Video for this story was provided by animal rights groups and individual activists through a Google Drive folder labeled "Press" and made available to multiple news organizations.