The Cost
What Wisconsin chose to spend.
Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend a dog-torture facility from the people trying to save the dogs.
The district attorney and Wisconsin law enforcement chose to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars defending a facility that tortures puppies — rather than enforcing the law of criminal animal cruelty and shutting down this torture place.
The facts
What the state knew. What the state did instead.
A Wisconsin state court judge found probable cause for felony animal cruelty charges against Ridglan Farms.
Despite that ruling, the government has declined to seize the beagles.
Wisconsin instead deployed multiple law enforcement agencies — and used tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, flashbang grenades, and ATVs against more than 1,000 unarmed civilians who came to rescue the dogs. Dozens were arrested.
U.S. Representative Mark Pocan, whose district includes Ridglan Farms, has elevated the crisis to the federal level — challenging the government to explain why it continues to support a facility with hundreds of health violations that very seriously harm
the dogs in its care.
Who Wisconsin deployed
To stop ordinary citizens from rescuing 2,000 abused dogs.
Agencies the rescuers identified at the scene on April 18:
Wisconsin had a choice. It chose to protect the facility a judge had already ruled probably committed felony cruelty — and to use force against the people trying to save the dogs.
See what the use of force looked like.
April 18 — The Record →