About 1,500 beagles in Wisconsin that have been at the center of a fierce fight waged by animal rights activists are moving to new homes.<\/p>\n
The state-licensed facility, Ridglan Farms, outside Madison, breeds the beagles for biomedical research aimed at improving veterinary medicine. Last fall, a special prosecutor found<\/a> that Ridglan had performed procedures on the beagles that constituted animal mistreatment. The company has denied that it abuses animals.<\/p>\n Big Dog Ranch Rescue<\/a>, which has campuses in Florida and Alabama, has bought 1,000 of the dogs and is working to find homes for them, said Lauree Simmons, the president and founder of the rescue service.<\/p>\n The Beagle Freedom Project<\/a>, an animal rescue and advocacy group, is working to find homes for the other 500 dogs.<\/p>\n The special prosecutor had let Ridglan Farms avoid prosecution on the condition that it surrender its breeding license by July, which would end its ability to sell dogs to outside labs.<\/p>\n But the company was permitted to continue experiments on the beagles, even though former employees testified that the dogs had undergone eye surgeries without general anesthesia.<\/p>\n Over the past few months, protesters have tried on separate occasions to enter the facility and steal the beagles. In March, some activists were successful and took 22 beagles, which were subsequently adopted.<\/p>\n