The Ridglan Beagles: Why It’s Time to Stop Funding Animal Testing

If you’re a dog lover, chances are the Ridglan Beagles have already found their way into your social media feed. Here’s the short version of the story: activists recently protested outside the Ridglan breeding and testing facility in Wisconsin. In the aftermath, Ridglan agreed to sell a large number of their dogs — 1,000 purchased by one rescue group, 500 by another, while 500 dogs remain at the facility. Those two primary rescues then coordinated with organizations across the country to place the dogs safely.

Most people watch the videos and see only the heart-melting moments: beagles touching grass for the first time, blinking into sunlight, leaning cautiously into a gentle human hand. But when you stop and really pay attention — when you read the captions, listen to the fosters, and watch the dogs’ body language — the truth becomes impossible to ignore. Their lives before rescue were the stuff of horror. The hurdles they face now are astronomical.

From what fosters have shared on the videos I’ve watched, these dogs arrived with no medical history whatsoever. No one knows which drugs were tested on which dog, what procedures they endured, or how their bodies might react to anesthesia during routine spay/neuter surgeries. Nobody knows what trauma they experienced or how it will imact them physically or mentally as time goes on.

Real Life is More Sinister Than Fiction for Labratory Dog

If you’ve followed my writing, you know my Labrador Retriever Quill is named after Peter Quill from Guardians of the Galaxy. So naturally, I keep coming back to the third movie — the moment we finally learn Rocket’s backstory. The surgeries. The experiments. The cruelty inflicted on a creature who had no say and no escape. I know it’s fiction, but when I look at these beagles, I find myself asking: is fiction really that much more horrific than what we’re doing in real life?

There’s a line in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 where Rocket says he wants to fly with his friends “into the forever and beautiful sky.” I don’t know if dogs dream in that way, or if the Ridglan beagles had any sense of what waited for them outside those walls. I go back and forth on whether it helps or harms dogs when we assume they think like us — because look at what human thinking has done to so many of them. But I do know what we dream for them: grass under their paws, sky above their heads, and a life where love replaces fear.

In some ways, I cannot believe we are still having this conversation in 2026.

I remember being a teenager in 1986, on a last shopping trip into Manhattan with my mom before we moved from New Jersey to Indiana. We turned a corner and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a demonstration against Revlon cosmetics — people holding signs, people dressed as rabbits, all protesting the Draize Test, a notoriously painful procedure where chemicals were dripped into rabbits’ eyes to measure irritation. That was the first time I learned about animal testing. Back then, I relied on magazines and newspapers to figure out which companies tested on animals. Once the internet came along, I tried to buy from brands that were cruelty-free.

Of course, there are areas where avoiding animal testing has been historically impossible. Many of the medications that have helped the people and dogs I love were almost certainly tested on animals — including beagles. For most of human history, there simply weren’t alternatives.

But we are no longer living in that era.

The Science Has Moved On. It’s Time for Our Policy and Funding To Also Advance

I want to be clear about something: I am not a scientist. I studied English Literature, and I’ve made dogs my passion and my expertise. I took the version of biology without a lab, and I chose oceanography because I thought it would be about marine mammals. It was not. I am not qualified to evaluate clinical trials or parse research methodology. What I can do is read enough to know that the tools exist — organ-on-a-chip technology, advanced computer modeling, stem-cell-based systems — and that people far smarter than me in laboratories and universities are already using them.

What I want is simple: I want the people who do know the science to work tirelessly to end this suffering, knowing that alternatives exist and are within reach. I want policy that gives them the funding and the mandate to get there. And I want us to stop spending taxpayer dollars defending methods that belong to the past.

The Ridglan Beagles are a Small Percentage of Dogs In Need of Saving

The Ridglan Beagles represent only a tiny fraction of the dogs currently being used or bred for testing. Some estimates suggest as many as 40,000 beagles spend their entire lives in cages — never feeling sunlight, never touching grass, never knowing fresh air or kindness. Instead, they endure fear and pain every single day.

I cannot fathom the contrast between their lives and my own sweet Quill’s. I worry whether the new furniture is comfortable enough for him, whether he dislikes the silky cool-down mat I bought. That’s the level of “hardship” he knows.

When I look at the faces of the rescued beagles, I see Quill’s face in theirs somehow. Part of it is their eyes — that emotional depth both Beagles and Labradors are known for. With each of my dogs, I’ve made the same promise: to keep them fed, cared for, and safe, but also to protect them from fear and pain. Seeing dogs who never got that promise breaks my heart wide open.

The Letter I Sent to Elected Officials Regarding Animal Testing

Part of me feels guilty that I’m not on the front lines — not breaking down doors or chaining myself to fences to save the dogs still trapped in laboratories. But that’s not my life. Quill needs me home, not in jail. And my husband’s job is one where “my wife has a felony” is not exactly a career-enhancing detail. I made vows to both of them to be present, and those vows matter.

So instead, last week I did what I know how to do: I wrote.

I wrote letters to my senators and representative. I wrote to the White House. I even attempted to email the Secretary of Health and Human Services — and while I’m not entirely sure that message reached anyone, I tried. I used my voice in the way I know how.

Here’s what I asked for, in plain language:

• Fund modern science
• Be transparent about how dogs are used in research
• Phase out methods where better alternatives already exist
• Stop spending taxpayer dollars on the past

It’s not enough to care. It’s not enough to share the cute videos or feel heartbroken for a moment and scroll on. These dogs don’t just need our sympathy — they need our voices. And our love of animals is one of the few things that is genuinely bipartisan. Reaching out to your elected officials is one of the most meaningful things you can do right now.

If you’d like to borrow my template to write your own letters, you can download it below. You don’t have to be an activist on the front lines. You don’t have to risk arrest or understand every federal acronym. You just have to be willing to speak up.

Resources: How You Can Help

Beagle Freedom Project — Rescue, rehabilitation, and legislative advocacy for beagles used in laboratory testing. Click on the Legislation tab to easily send a pre-written email to your elected officials regarding several pieces of legistation. I went one by one and send all that I could for where I live. https://bfp.org

Contact Your Elected Officials — Use my letter template or pre-formatted messages from advocacy groups working on this issue. It takes minutes. It matters. 

Choose Cruelty-Free Products — The Leaping Bunny certification is a widely trusted, independently audited standard. A simple way to support companies committed to humane practices. https://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping-guide

Support Local Rescues — Many regional rescues are caring for Ridglan beagles right now. Donations of supplies, gift cards, or funds help offset the cost of medical care, behavioral support, and long-term fostering. You can search Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but as always, research and make sure you are donating to a legitimate rescue organization.

If You Want to Read About the Science That’s Possible

The alternatives to animal testing are real, they’re advancing fast, and they’re worth knowing about. Here are a few places to start:

• FDA’s Shift from Animal Testing Opens Doors for Organoid Makers — Chemical & Engineering News
• FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing — The Scientist
• Can Alternative Models Really Replace Animal Testing? — Drug Discovery News
• Human Organ-On-A-Chip: Technologies, Benefits, and Challenges — U.S. Government Accountability Office

⚖️ A Quick but Important Note

Nothing in this article is legal advice, medical advice, or encouragement to violate any laws. I believe in working through proper, peaceful, democratic channels to create change.

If you’d like to contact your legislators, the easiest way to start is simply to Google “who represents me” or “find my legislators” along with your state. That will take you to the official government pages where you can look up your federal and state representatives.

All images in this post are stock photographs, not actual Ridglan beagles.