{"id":782315,"date":"2026-11-10T09:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=782315"},"modified":"2026-11-10T09:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:38:16","slug":"seven-lessons-from-the-impossible-ridglan-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=782315","title":{"rendered":"Let’s ‘Marshall’ Our Forces: Seven lessons from the ‘impossible’ Ridglan Farms Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rescue at Ridglan Farms should have been an impossible mission. Ridglan had a barbed wire fence and was on high alert for activists. The system was broken and corrupt. That left us facing seemingly impossible odds. But we took on the mission anyway. And we won. Every one of the Ridglan dogs is now free. Now, just 7 months later, we face another daunting challenge: rescuing the 16,000 dogs at Marshall BioResources. Once again, people are saying it is an impossible mission. But the Marshall rescue can nonetheless be done. In fact, it must be done. To pull it off, however, we have to learn the lessons from Ridglan.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WAYNE HSIUNG:<\/strong> The rescue at Ridglan Farms should have been an impossible mission… virtually all the veteran activists I talked to told me to forget about it. Ridglan had a barbed wire fence and was on high alert for activists. Years of prosecutions had depleted the open rescue movement of leaders.<\/em><\/p>\n

And the local authorities in Dane County were co-opted by the industry; the special prosecutor bent over backwards to cater to the industry, for example, while refusing to even talk to any of the witnesses of animal abuse at Ridglan Farms. The system was broken and corrupt. That left us facing seemingly impossible odds. But we took on the mission anyway. And we won. Every one of the Ridglan dogs is now free.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, just 7 months later, we face another daunting challenge: rescuing the 16,000 dogs at Marshall BioResources. Once again, people are saying it is an impossible mission, despite disturbing evidence of criminal abuse… But the Marshall rescue can nonetheless be done. In fact, it must be done. To pull it off, however, we have to learn the lessons from Ridglan. Here are some of the important ones.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 1: Open rescue can create transformative change\u2014under the right conditions. Open rescue fulfills the two most important goals of any strategy for social change: attention and sympathy… This allowed us to recruit from a much wider pool of people. It built a dramatic storyline as the date of the rescue approached. And it furthered our case that we have the legal right to rescue animals from abuse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 2: Find the BHAG. Historically, big goals have been looked upon with suspicion by the animal movement… In contrast, the Ridglan case had Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). We not only said we were going to rescue every last one of the Ridglan dogs… but save all the animals cruelly used in experiments…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 3: Leadership requires soft skills, not charisma. Traditionally, people think of leaders as charismatic, extroverted, and great speakers. The leaders of the Ridglan campaign were different. Team leads were chosen based mostly on character traits, not charisma…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 4: AI is a game changer\u2014but only if you\u2019re obsessed. AI was a massive force amplifier throughout the Ridglan campaign. We used it to research Ridglan and its buyers. We used it to build websites. We even used it to manage conflict resolution processes…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 5: To win, you need skill at the outside and inside game. Most animal rights groups try to play outside (grassroots, protest, direct action) or inside (lobbying, persuasion, negotiation)… Combining the inside and outside games is something that successful social movements… We did both, and it worked…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 6: Pitch a tent so big it\u2019s a little uncomfortable. In a world that\u2019s highly polarized, it\u2019s hard to build a large, diverse grassroots movement. People immediately attack one another for political differences. But that\u2019s precisely what movements need: numbers create power, and diversity shows that power is not a niche element of society…<\/em><\/p>\n

Lesson 7: Delete the rules. Focus on values. Scale usually requires bureaucracy… When people see hard rules that clearly don\u2019t work, they get frustrated and leave. As much as possible, we tried to eliminate these rules, and the many other permission structures that frustrate movements as they scale up, and focus instead on shared values…<\/em><\/p>\n

To get the speed and scale necessary to save the dogs at Marshall, we\u2019ll have to take a similar approach… We should be announcing a new strategy to save the Marshall dogs soon. I and a number of other committed organizers and partners in the campaign to stop the abuses at Marshall, and get all the dogs out, have been in intensive meetings for the last couple days. We hope to announce a new strategic framework for the campaign within a week. <\/em>SOURCE<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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