April 19, 2026 / 9:10 AM EDT / CBS/AP
About 1,000 animal-welfare activists who attempted Saturday to enter a beagle breeding and research facility in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, were repelled by police who used rubber bullets and pepper spray and arrested the group’s leader.
It was the second attempt in two months to take dogs from Ridglan Farms, roughly 25 miles southwest of Madison. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were “violently trying to break into the property” and assault officers, that they ignored designated protest areas and blocked roads, and that the action was not peaceful.
The sheriff’s office said a “significant” number of people were arrested out of the roughly 1,000 on site but did not provide an exact total as processing continued into the afternoon. Protesters tried to breach barricades that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and a barbed-wire fence; some made it through the fence but could not reach the facility, which reportedly houses about 2,000 beagles.
Activists later moved to protest outside the jail in downtown Madison. The Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs had publicized plans to seize the dogs on Sunday but began the operation a day early. The group’s leader, Wayne Hsiung, posted a picture on X showing his arrest. Authorities also arrested a person who they say recklessly drove a pickup through the farm’s front gate, which they said “prevent[ed] a potentially deadly outcome.”
Saturday’s action followed a March 15 break-in at the facility; charges against 63 people from that incident were previously referred by the sheriff’s office. Ridglan denies mistreating animals but in October agreed to surrender its state breeding license effective July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal-mistreatment charges. On its website, Ridglan says “no credible evidence of animal abuse, cruelty, mistreatment or neglect at Ridglan Farms has ever been presented or substantiated.”