On April 30, Ridglan Farms finally buckled to public pressure, handing the movement against animal testing one of its biggest triumphs, an agreement to purchase 1,500 beagles for an undisclosed amount of money. The hard-won concession was made possible by an unlikely and uncoordinated alliance of advocates from the left and right. While left-leaning animal rights groups like Direct Action Everywhere have carried out past break-in efforts to rescue the dogs, MAGA luminary Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, waged a highly visible pressure campaign on the company and the animal testing industry. At a time when partisan divisions continue to widen in the nation, one area of common ground seems to be animal welfare.
LEIGHTON WOODHOUSE: Ridglan Farms, a breeder of beagles for scientific experiments, has withstood attacks from the animal rights movement for years. Activists have broken into its buildings to document the conditions inside them, rescued some dogs, and pushed Wisconsin authorities to cite the company for animal abuse.
On April 30, Ridglan finally buckled to the public pressure, handing the movement against animal testing one of its biggest triumphs. Big Dog Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy announced that the groups reached an agreement to purchase 1,500 beagles for an undisclosed amount of money. The dogs are being adopted out to families across the country; the remaining 500 may also be freed at a later date.
The hard-won concession was made possible by an unlikely and uncoordinated alliance of advocates from the left and right. While left-leaning animal rights groups like Direct Action Everywhere have carried out past break-in efforts to rescue the dogs,… Lara Trump – President Trump’s daughter-in-law and a board member of Big Dog Rescue – waged a highly visible pressure campaign on the company and the animal testing industry. At a time when partisan divisions continue to widen in the nation, one area of common ground seems to be animal welfare…
In recent years, conservative animal lovers and right-leaning politicians, such as Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Joni Ernst, and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have enthusiastically embraced the cause. This is partly due to the notoriety on the right of Anthony Fauci, who formerly led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the main funder of the animal testing industry.
“For over half a century, he personally conducted deadly primate experiments and built a multi-billion-dollar NIH empire that did more to entrench, proliferate, and prolong animal testing than anyone else,” said White Coat Waste Project founder Anthony Belotti, who has spent years organizing conservatives against government-sponsored animal testing…
Activists don’t know if the break-ins, bad press, deal money, or a combination of them, convinced Ridglan to release the dogs. Whatever the cause, the move is part of a shift away from animal testing, said Tami Drake of the Center for a Humane Economy. “If you look at the companies that breed lab beagles, they’re dwindling,” she said. SOURCE
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