Direct Action Everywhere
While charges against three animal rights activists for taking beagles from an animal breeding and research facility near Mount Horeb have been dismissed, there is still a chance that the issues that motivated them could have a day in court.
On March 20, Madison-based nonprofit Dane4Dogs and Wayne Hsiung, one of the defendants in the original prosecution, filed a petition to appoint a special prosecutor to charge the facility, Ridglan Farms, for what they said were violations of Wisconsin laws against animal abuse.
“The facts presented in this petition…would unquestionably be criminal animal abuse if undertaken by an ordinary citizen,” reads the petition. “The question facing this court is whether, after years of governmental inaction, corporations also will be held accountable to the law.”
As noted in an article in last month’s Isthmus, Hsiung and two other activists were hoping to use their trial, scheduled to begin March 18, to call attention to the conditions they observed when they broke into Ridglan Farms in 2017 and removed three of its more than 3,000 beagles. But just ten days before trial, the charges were dismissed at the urging of “the victims,” Ridglan Farms, due to stated concerns over safety.
Hsiung and another defendant asked that the charges not be dismissed, but Dane County Circuit Court Judge Mario White said he had to take the victims’ wishes into account. Afterward, Hsiung and others urged the Dane County District Attorney’s Office to look into bringing charges against Ridglan Farms. The request for a special prosecutor came after that.
Rebekah Robinson of Dane4Dogs tells Isthmus the organization is hoping for a hearing in the next month or so “to be able to present some of this evidence to a judge.” But previous efforts by animal rights groups to get Dane County judges to prosecute animal breeding facilities have hit roadblocks.
Last year, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Nia Trammell found probable cause that a primate research center at UW-Madison broke animal cruelty laws, but declined to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue charges. She said “it would be difficult for any prosecutor to meet their burden of proof and obtain a conviction.”
In 2010, Judge Amy Smith also found probable cause that nine researchers and officials at UW-Madison had violated animal cruelty laws and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate. That prosecutor, David Geier, ultimately did not find that those employees broke the law.
Editor's note: This post has been updated to correct the spelling of Nia Trammell's name.
