About the coalition
How we got here.
This campaign did not start in 2026. It started in 2017, when three rescuers walked into a Wisconsin facility in broad daylight and carried three beagles into freedom. Everything that has happened since — the prosecution, the silence, the dropped charges, the special prosecutor, the surrendered license, the rescues, the riot police — flows from what was found on that day, and from a coalition of ordinary people who refused to look away.
We are not one organization. We are a coalition — local Wisconsin groups, national networks, humane societies, scientists, lawyers, and thousands of people who have never been arrested before in their lives.
What follows is the public record of how a small open rescue at a beagle breeding facility in Blue Mounds became a fight that has now drawn coverage from Democracy Now, the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, and Science magazine — and a use-of-force response from Wisconsin law enforcement that the country is still reckoning with.
The history
From three beagles to a thousand rescuers.
- April 2017
The first open rescue
Eva Hamer, Paul Picklesimer, and Wayne Hsiung walked into Ridglan Farms in broad daylight, documented the conditions, and carried out three beagles in distress: Julie, Anna, and Lucy. Julie — facility ID “DPS6” — has now lived in a loving home for almost a decade. Open rescue had arrived in Wisconsin.
- 2018
The arrests, then the silence
A year after the rescue, the three were arrested on felony burglary and theft charges — a potential 16 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. The Dane County District Attorney then sat on the underlying cruelty complaints for six years, ignoring nearly 1,000 emails from the public asking why a facility with hundreds of state violations was not being prosecuted.
- March 2024
Charges dropped — ten days before trial
Ten days before Eva, Paul, and Wayne were set to face a Dane County jury, the prosecution collapsed. Judge Mario White granted dismissal. The case the state had used to silence the rescuers became the case that exposed the silence.
Wayne Hsiung — “Why the Ridglan Prosecution Fell Apart” - 2024
The push for a special prosecutor
With the District Attorney refusing to act, citizens petitioned the courts for a special prosecutor under Wisconsin law. A judge agreed to weigh the petition — the first formal admission that local prosecution had failed and the public had standing to demand otherwise.
- January 2025
A judge finds probable cause for felony cruelty
After an evidentiary hearing where Ridglan's own footage and inspector reports were entered as exhibits, a Wisconsin state court judge ruled there was probable cause to charge Ridglan Farms with felony animal cruelty. The factual core of the activists' case became the official finding of the court.
- October 2025
Ridglan agrees to surrender its breeding license
Under a settlement with the special prosecutor, Ridglan Farms agreed to surrender its Wisconsin commercial dog-breeding license by July 1, 2026 and to stop selling dogs to other laboratories. The facility that had operated for decades was forced to commit to closing its breeding pipeline.
- March 15, 2026
We went in. We got them out.
100+ rescuers converged on Ridglan at dawn and removed 30 beagles from a facility with 311 documented cruelty violations. Police seized 8 of the dogs, returned them to the facility, and arrested 27 of the rescuers. For most of the dogs who made it to safety, it was the first time they had been outside.
See the evidence - April 18, 2026
1,000+ ordinary Americans came back
Teachers. Doctors. Nurses. Students. Families. Democrats and Republicans. They came committed to non-violence. Wisconsin law enforcement met them with tear gas, then pepper spray, then rubber bullets at close range, then their hands. Hundreds came home with injuries — and the kind of memories that don't go away.
See the full record
Why it took a coalition
No single organization could have moved this.
It took local Wisconsin organizers who knew the county. National networks who could mobilize people from across the country. Lawyers who would defend the rescuers without a guarantee of victory. Humane societies willing to put their names on an open letter to a District Attorney. Investigators who spent years collecting records the regulators wouldn’t. Veterinarians, scientists, and policy advocates who would speak publicly when others wouldn’t.
And — most of all — it took the thousands of ordinary people who showed up. Teachers, parents, students, retirees. People who had never broken a law in their lives, deciding that the cruelty inside Ridglan Farms was worse than the consequences of trying to stop it.
The coalition
Who’s behind it.
These are the organizations that built the campaign that brought the case this far. Each works on a different piece of the same problem.
Coalition members
Dane4Dogs
A Wisconsin 501(c)(3) that has worked for years to end the breeding, sale, and use of dogs and cats for laboratory experimentation. Helped pass six municipal ordinances banning the practice across the state. Sued — and beat — Ridglan Farms when the facility tried to silence them.
The Marty Project
A nonprofit advancing public policy that replaces dogs in product-safety testing with evidence-based scientific alternatives. Co-led the documentation effort that obtained UW–Madison records of 19 Ridglan dogs purchased between 2022 and 2023.
Direct Action Everywhere (DxE)
The grassroots network that brought open rescue to Wisconsin in 2017. Eva Hamer, Paul Picklesimer, and Wayne Hsiung were DxE investigators when they carried out Julie, Anna, and Lucy. DxE has been organizing on Ridglan ever since.
The Simple Heart Initiative
Wayne Hsiung's organization, focused on the legal and moral case for the right to rescue. Publishes the public-facing record of the campaign and coordinates legal defense for arrested rescuers.
Animal Activism Collective
Trains new activists through mentorship, online education, and in-person events. Many of the people who showed up at Ridglan on March 15 and April 18 came through AAC.
Rise for Animals
Investigative nonprofit that has obtained and published records central to the Ridglan case — buyers, federal citations, and the regulatory paper trail that made the cruelty undeniable.
Alliance for Animals
A Wisconsin 501(c)(3) whose president, Kristen Schrank, signed the February 2026 open letter to the District Attorney alongside 100+ other organizations and humane societies.
PETA
PETA's Laboratory Oversight & Special Cases division, led by Dr. Alka Chandna, has elevated Ridglan into the national conversation around animal experimentation.
Pro-Animal Future
A collective of voters, volunteers, and small donors building scalable citizen ballot initiatives to end factory farming and animal cruelty. Bringing the kind of political infrastructure to the animal-rights movement that has been missing for decades.
Plus 100+ Wisconsin humane societies, veterinarians, and animal-welfare professionals who signed the February 2026 open letter to the District Attorney.
Everyday people
This is what a coalition looks like when ordinary people decide enough is enough.
The 1,000+ people who showed up to Ridglan Farms on April 18 weren’t professional activists. They were neighbors. They drove in from across the country. They came knowing they might be arrested. They came knowing what had happened to Eva, Paul, and Wayne in 2018 — and what could happen to them.
They came anyway. Because once you know what is happening inside a facility like Ridglan, the cost of not acting is greater than the cost of acting. That is the moral logic at the center of this campaign — and it is the reason the coalition keeps growing.
There are still 2,000 dogs inside.
Add your name. Donate to the coalition. Show up to the next action. The campaign that brought the case this far runs on people deciding to be part of it.