Hundreds of animal welfare activists converged Saturday on a Wisconsin beagle breeding and research facility, forcing local law enforcement – prepared for the planned event – to use tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets "to keep and maintain peace in the community."
"It was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a peaceful protest," Dane Country Sheriff Kalvin Barrett wrote in a statement Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, where about 1,000 activists gathered after organizers abruptly moved up a previously publicized Sunday protest, according to authorities. Deputies said protesters were warned through a Long Range Acoustic Device that anyone crossing onto clearly marked private property would be arrested.
But authorities said hundreds soon tried to break through barriers and fencing at the farm while others blocked nearby roads to slow law enforcement and emergency responders.
Hsiung, an animal welfare lawyer, was being held Saturday in the Dane County Jail.
"I am in tears hearing these stories about what is unfolding at Ridglan Farms," Hsiung shared in an X message "from jail" on Saturday. "This is the kind of bravery from ordinary people that changes the world. We cannot give up on the dogs. If we stay focused on this purpose, the repression will backfire."
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., represents this district and called out President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just this week on this topic.
"In my district, a beagle breeding facility called Ridglan Farms has hundreds of code violations, including serious harm to the health of the dogs, yet the NIH is still giving funding to groups that use the beagles from this facility," Pocan wrote on X, sharing video of his House hearing questioning.
"I urged Secretary Kennedy to stop this practice."
At the hearing, Kennedy questioned Pocan's claims that NIH is still getting beagles from this facility. The use of beagles in animal testing had long been under fire from former President Joe Biden's administration.
"I believe you, but I have a hard time believing that," he responded. "I need to look into this."
"We've done more than any other administration has to end animal testing," Kennedy continued, claiming that "we’ve ended most of it."
"What you're describing should not be happening," he added.
The White Coat Waste Project (WCWP) has been actively pressing the Trump administration on the beagles testing, claiming "RFK literally lied to Congress about" continuing to fund animal testing, according to Justin Goodman, WCWP senior vice president.
"In truth, they doled out over $126 million in new funding to dog and cat labs since RFK took office," mistreating animals. The facility agreed last year to surrender its state breeding license effective July 1 under a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges, while continuing to deny abuse or neglect.
On its website, the company says that no credible evidence of abuse, cruelty, mistreatment or neglect at Ridglan Farms has been substantiated.
The clash marked the second effort to remove dogs from the facility, which has become a flashpoint in the fight over animal testing and breeding conditions. Protesters on Saturday tried to overcome barriers that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and barbed-wire fencing.
Some made it through the outer fence but were unable to get inside the facility itself.
The protest had been publicized in advance, with announced plans to seize dogs from the property Sunday before launching the action a day earlier. As the effort stalled, some activists expressed frustration that no animals had been removed.
"I just feel defeated," activist Julie Vrzeski told the Wisconsin State Journal roughly three hours into the operation.
After being pushed back from the facility, demonstrators later shifted their protest to outside the jail in downtown Madison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.