Many of them are scared, stressed out, and exhausted.
Others are excited — full of energy they've never had the opportunity to expend and ready to play like all dogs should be allowed to do.
Some just want a hug or a cozy lap in which to sit.
Either way, hundreds of them got to do things over the last few days that they've never done before. They felt the sun shine on their fur. They felt the grass beneath their feet. They felt human touch and love. They experienced joy and play.
I'm talking, of course, about the Ridglan Farms beagles. These videos evoke so many emotions for me — anger, sadness, hope, and gratitude that there are people in the world who were willing to fight for these innocent creatures.
BREAKING: The first 300 Ridglan beagles touched grass for the first time today.
— Dean Guzman Wyrzykowski (@deanguzmanw) May 2, 2026
They stepped outside and looked up at the sun.
Many are playful. Some are scared. All are learning the world can be safe.
Today, they are free. pic.twitter.com/jUF6Y6dCGf
BREAKING NEWS: 1,500 BEAGLES ARE BEING RELEASED FROM RIDGLAN FARMS! 🐶❤️
— Beagle Freedom Project (@beaglefreedom) April 30, 2026
BFP is overseeing the placement of 500 of these dogs.
We need YOU: donate, adopt, foster, volunteer. ❤️
Visit https://t.co/vFpTB0ma3B to get involved! pic.twitter.com/lDw65QDn4q
31 beagles loaded into the DogeVan today. Working with Big Dog Ranch Rescue to get them to safety. pic.twitter.com/oLnS9D3syK
— Doge Van (@ballsdeepindoge) May 4, 2026
Before this week, these dogs lived in cages and pens in windowless rooms at Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin-based research facility that breeds dogs for its own purposes and to sell to other facilities for experiments like toxicity testing and vaccine and drug development. It's the second-largest of its kind in the United States, and it's been in business for about six decades.
For years, animal welfare advocates accused Ridglan Farms of inhumane practices and mistreating the beagles it breeds. They claimed they lived in awful conditions with no exercise or socialization, and no access to the outdoors. I've read about accusations ranging from piles of waste everywhere to a strong scent of ammonia throughout the building to dogs forced to walk on floors essentially made of chicken wire. They even claimed that procedures, like cherry eye surgery, were performed on the dogs without veterinary oversight or pain relief.
Ridglan denied this, of course, but at some point, employees also began to speak out.
Eventually, a Dane County judge found probable cause for animal cruelty violations. Rather than go to trial, Ridglan Farms agreed to a settlement that would involve giving up its breeding license by July 2026 and following the conditions laid out by the court.
I'm simplifying this story a little bit, but I want to get to where we are now and why these dogs are now free. On March 15, various animal welfare activists broke into the facility and took about 30 beagles. In mid-April, a large protest formed outside the facility, and this time there were over 1,000 people involved. Law enforcement resorted to using tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, and many were arrested.
Ridglan called the protest a "violent mob," but behind the scenes, it negotiated a deal with the Center for a Humane Economy and the Florida-based Big Dog Ranch Rescue. The rescue groups agreed to buy 1,500 of the 2,000 beagles on Ridglan's campus for an undisclosed amount, and the first groups of dogs left the facility this past weekend, hence the videos.
It's not clear what will happen to the remaining 500 dogs, but the ones who have left have been transported to cities around the country and are beginning their journeys toward adoption. They'll be socialized and spayed/neutered and, hopefully, get to live out the rest of their lives in happy, healthy homes, where they can behave like real dogs instead of science experiments. As you can imagine, the demand to adopt them is huge.
This facility has cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and I'm glad this is happening. As I've written in the past, the days of conducting barbaric testing, often with low-yielding or inconclusive results, on animals are long over. In 2026, we have numerous alternatives, like organ-on-a-chip and AI modeling, that are far more accurate and do not cause suffering to living creatures. It's beyond time to defund this garbage at this facility and all others.
Even the president's family is celebrating the beagles' freedom. On Friday, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is on the board for Big Dog Ranch Rescue, posted a video on social media, thanking everyone who made this happen.
"You can judge a society by how they treat those with no voice and those who are the most vulnerable, and certainly, you can put these beagles at Ridglan Farms in that category," she said.
THE RIDGLAN BEAGLES ARE FREE!!!!!!! 🙏🏽😭🐶🤍 pic.twitter.com/2rUdh8wx1i
— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) May 1, 2026
