Sign the Petition

Federal leadership · U.S. House of Representatives

Rep. Mark Pocan took Ridglan
to the floor of the U.S. House.

The congressman for Wisconsin’s 2nd District — where Ridglan operates — has been the most consistent federal voice on the breeding of dogs for laboratory testing. His leadership turned the Ridglan campaign into federal precedent. That precedent is the foundation of the Marshall BioResources campaign now.

The role

The congressman whose district contains Ridglan.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI 2) represents Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Blue Mounds — the small Wisconsin town where Ridglan Farms operates. That makes him the federal representative most directly accountable to the community living next door to the largest beagle-breeding facility in the state.

Where Wisconsin state officials largely declined to engage, Rep. Pocan went to the floor of the U.S. House and named what was happening. He has been a critical voice for federal oversight of the laboratory-breeding industry, and the most prominent member of Congress to take Ridglan seriously as a federal issue.

District

Wisconsin’s 2nd

Includes Blue Mounds — Ridglan’s location.

Body

U.S. House

Senior member; appropriations seat.

Posture

Leading federally

On record from the House floor.

The floor speech

What he said on the record.

On the floor of the U.S. House, Rep. Pocan put the conditions at Ridglan into the Congressional Record — reading documented violations into the official transcript so that no future official could claim not to have known.

“There were documented instances of stagnant waste and poor ventilation so severe that it made inspectors physically ill. Multiple cages with rusted or broken wires caused cysts and infections, and dogs were often subjected to removal of their vocal cords — in certain instances allegedly without anesthesia or pain management.”

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI 2) · Floor of the U.S. House

“This situation is so nonpartisan that even Lara Trump and Laura Loomer have spoken out against what’s happening at Ridglan Farms. Interesting bedfellows.”

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI 2) · Floor of the U.S. House

The amendment

The federal-licensing fix.

Rep. Pocan secured language in a House manager’s amendment that directs the USDA to review the federal licenses of breeders who lose their state license. The mechanism is simple: if a state finds a breeder unfit to operate, the federal government should not continue to license that same operator without taking a serious second look.
In Pocan’s words, this is something that “should be an automatic thing.” It is the kind of common-sense oversight that closes a loophole the Ridglan case made impossible to ignore: a breeder accumulating hundreds of state-level cruelty findings while passing federal inspection.
The principle behind the amendment — federal accountability for any breeder credibly accused of cruelty — is the foundation of the Marshall BioResources campaign now under way. The same standard should apply to every laboratory-dog breeder in the United States.

Lose your state license → the USDA reviews your federal one. A common-sense fix that, in his words, “should be an automatic thing.”

Why it matters

One member, the right precedent.

The Ridglan campaign needed someone in Congress willing to read the conditions into the official record. Rep. Pocan did that. He showed that a member of the U.S. House can take a single facility seriously as a federal issue, and use the tools of Congress to begin closing the loophole that lets these facilities operate.
That precedent is portable. The same approach — floor speeches, oversight letters, amendment language, public attention — is what the Marshall BioResources campaign needs from members of the New York congressional delegation and the rest of the U.S. House. The federal mechanism Rep. Pocan opened on Ridglan is the mechanism we are asking other members to use on Marshall.

Background

Ridglan campaign

The 10-year arc Rep. Pocan helped finish.

What’s next

Marshall BioResources

Where the Pocan precedent goes next.

Take action

Thank Rep. Pocan. Then ask your own rep to do the same.

Rep. Pocan read Ridglan’s violations into the Congressional Record — the first member of Congress to put this facility on the official record. Every member should be doing the same: on Ridglan, on Marshall, on every facility breeding dogs for laboratory testing.

Thank Rep. Pocan →Contact your rep →Marshall campaign →Ridglan campaign →