Last week, we joined in celebrating a monumental legal victory for dogs bred for animal research. 

Thanks to the relentless efforts of Wayne Hsiung, Dane4Dogs, and Alliance for Animals, a Wisconsin judge ordered an investigation into Ridglan Farms’ commercial dog breeding operation by a specially appointed prosecutor.

The judge’s decision comes after the Court found probable cause to believe that Ridglan Farms committed felony animal cruelty by causing dogs “unnecessary and excessive pain or suffering”.

The Court’s finding was based on harrowing testimony from former Ridglan employees, who recounted dogs having glands cut out of their eyes by non-veterinarians without anesthesia or pain relief – resulting in the dogs bleeding profusely and “thrashing around in pain, often yelping, crying out” –  and dogs being paralyzed with a chemical agent, though still fully conscious, while non-veterinarian employees “‘pried open’” their mouths and used “‘a sharp tool [to] sever the flaps in the back of their throats’” to suppress barking.

(The Court also found probable cause that Ridglan committed a host of misdemeanor offenses by failing to provide dogs with safe enclosures, adequate space, adequate sanitation, and adequate ventilation.) 

At the same time that this ruling deals a significant blow to the animal research industry, it also highlights the immense legal protections the industry enjoys. That is to say, the Court could make this finding only because Ridglan Farms acts as both a research facility and a commercial breeder for the research industry. 

Ridglan’s operations are legally divided into two categories: (1) breeding and sellings dogs to animal research facilities under a federal Class A license, and (2) experimenting on dogs within its own research facility under a federal Class R registration. Crucially, the animal cruelty laws giving rise to the Court’s findings against Ridglan apply only to the former – i.e., its breeding operations.

This means that mutilating a conscious dog’s eyes or severing their vocal cords is illegal only if the dog is part of Ridglan’s breeding operation. If the exact same dog is subject to the exact same atrocities as part of an “experiment” at Ridglan, it’s completely legal.

This betrays the devastating reality that animal research facilities operate with near-total immunity from animal cruelty laws.

And this means that, though supporting the case against Ridglan is critical, it is but one crucial piece of the fight for a world where no animal suffers for profit or power.

Our fight for justice must include every animal trapped by this perverse industry – no matter whether they are bred, sold, or experimented upon.

The petitioners in the Ridglan case attribute their recent legal victory to the massive social and public support they’ve received, meaning that each one of us who posted about this on social media, sent an email, or made a phone call helped make this happen. 

Let’s keep working together to ensure that this is just the beginning.

Please start by spreading the word, and stay tuned for upcoming opportunities to make a difference for all animals – at Ridglan and beyond.

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