This week, Channel 3000 brought critical, ongoing attention to our investigation in partnership with The Marty Project, which exposes those still buying beagles from Wisconsin’s notorious breeder, Ridglan Farms, for use in research and testing — even as the facility faces an ongoing court-ordered probe into animal cruelty. 

On Monday, reporter Kyle Pozorski covered what we revealed: that the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Labcorp are among Ridglan’s recent clients, as evidenced in records we obtained through public records requests. Those documents show that between January 2022 and July 2025, Ridglan sold 6,853 dogs — including 19 to UW-Madison and 170 to Labcorp. 

Year-over-year declines in dogs reported at Ridglan suggest that public pressure may be working to reduce Ridglan’s sales of dogs, and perhaps even reduce the use of dogs in U.S. research labs generally. But the suffering continues for the dogs who are still bred and sold into research — a cruel fate that sees most of them tortured and killed without ever stepping foot beyond their manmade prisons. 

On Wednesday, in a follow-up report by Channel 3000’s Kyle Jones, UW-Madison issued a public response to being named as a client of Ridglan Farms.

A spokesperson for the University confirmed it has purchased dogs from Ridglan, stating the animals were used in research studies that “have been supported by grants from federal agencies, nonprofit foundations and patient groups, and health care companies.” 

UW-Madison emphasized that it sources animals from USDA-licensed suppliers and relies on USDA oversight, adding that all animals are screened for health before research use.

All animals UW-Madison receives from suppliers are screened to ensure they are healthy prior to inclusion in any research. If animals showed signs of poor condition or mistreatment, the university would take issue with that and find another supplier.
—UW-Madison to Channel 3000

This is nothing more than a hollow deflection. Leaving aside that, USDA licensure or registration could never, of course, make animal exploitation ethical, and history has shown that the USDA’s regulatory oversight of animal suppliers and the labs they sell to is abysmal. 

Moreover, even as part of an industry built on exploitation and violence, Ridglan is a stand out, having faced years of public allegations about illegal cruelty to the dogs it breeds and sells, and now the subject of an unprecedented court-appointed special prosecutor’s investigation into just that. 

Yet, UW-Madison’s statements to Channel 3000 prove the University is not only unapologetic about its exploitation of dogs but actually seeks to specifically defend its purchase of dogs from Ridglan. (But we admit: We didn’t really expect anything better from an institution that has faltered in the face of public pressure about its unethical practices — last week, a Wisconsin court actually found the University to have unconstitutionally blocked free speech critical of its animal research practices.)

UW-Madison is, as of publishing this piece, the only client to publicly respond after being outed in our recent list of buyers sustaining Ridglan’s business.

We’ll keep you apprised as this story continues to develop. Until then, as always, we will keep shining a light on every U.S. institution that fuels the animal research industry. We won’t let them hide in the darkness. 

Every dog, every monkey, and every mouse exploited in research is a sentient being whose freedoms have been denied, whose lives have been stolen, and whose bodies have been reduced to data points. At Rise for Animals, we won’t stop investigating, exposing, and advocating until every animal in every cage in every laboratory is free. 

Join us in our fight to end animal experimentation once and for all.

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