From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

I am reminded of David Bowie's song, We can be heroes, just for one day."

https://dnyuz.com/2026/04/18/activists-tear-gassed-at-failed-raid-of-beagle-research-facility/

Hundreds of animal rights activists in Wisconsin were thwarted by the
police and private security guards as they tried to steal thousands of
beagles from a facility that breeds them for sale to research labs and
for experiments done on site.

Officers and guards fired tear gas and rubber bullets on the estimated
1,000 protesters, witnesses said, to keep them from entering the
facility, Ridglan Farms, a state-licensed dog breeder . Ridglan breeds
beagles for biomedical research aimed at improving veterinary medicine.
The company has denied that it abuses animals.


The raid on Ridglan Farms had been planned for weeks, allowing the
facility and the police to prepare for what protesters deemed a civil
action.

Activists said that at least 26 people were arrested. Elise Schaffer, a spokeswoman for the Dane County SheriffrCOs Office, said that officers recovered tools from the activists that could have been used to break
into the building, but no dogs were taken.

The protesters, organized by the national animal rights group Direct
Action Everywhere, successfully broke into Ridglan Farms on March 15 and
took 22 beagles, which were subsequently adopted.

Last fall, a special prosecutor found that Ridglan Farms, about 30 miles outside Madison, the state capital, had performed experiments on the
beagles that constituted animal mistreatment. But he let the company
avoid prosecution on condition that it surrender its breeding license by
July 1, which would end its ability to sell dogs to outside labs.

The company can continue to perform experiments on its beagles, even
though former employees testified that the dogs had undergone eye
surgeries without general anesthesia.

Wayne Hsiung, founder of Direct Action Everywhere, said in an online
post in March that he sought 2,000 people willing to gather at Ridglan
Farms this month and rCLuse every nonviolent means to breach the facility walls and rescue the dogs.rCY The village of Blue Mounds, site of the
Ridglan facility, has a population of less than 1,000.

The plan for a second raid prompted the Dane County SheriffrCOs Office to bring in reinforcements, including police from the Wisconsin villages of Oregon and Black Earth, state troopers and RidglanrCOs own private
security force, Ms. Schaffer said. Organizers tried to work with Ridglan
Farms to re-home the beagles, but were unsuccessful. A company spokesman
said that individuals have asked the company about buying the dogs, but declined further comment.

A phalanx of officers awaited the protesters, who arrived at Ridglan
Farms on Saturday morning dressed in all black or clad in white lab
jumpsuits, and law enforcement personnel announced over loudspeakers
that trespassers would be arrested.

At around 9 a.m., the police arrested Mr. Hsiung before he entered the
site, saying that they had probable cause. The scene quickly devolved afterward as the police arrested protesters who had breached the fencing around the property.

rCLOnly a deeply corrupt system will use tear gas and rubber bullets
against peaceful activists saving dogs,rCY Mr. Hsiung said in a statement
from jail. He was charged with burglary.


Ms. Schaffer said that the protesters had been warned that they would be tear-gassed, a caution that some said they had not heard.

At approximately 10 a.m., someone plowed a pickup truck through Ridglan FarmsrCO front gate and was arrested by the police.

A spokesman for Ridglan Farms said that the activists had tried to break
in repeatedly from all sides of the research facility.

He declined to comment on the law enforcement actions.

Photographs from the scene show officers pointing rifles at a protester
lying on the ground. Jenny McQueen, who drove from Toronto with her
husband and half a dozen other Canadians to get the dogs out, said that officers began throwing tear gas canisters over the fence almost
immediately after 9 a.m. Ms. McQueen said she was pepper-sprayed in the
face.

rCLAs I was filming, I saw police with rifles and ammo whizzed past me,rCY
Ms. McQueen said, adding that she did not hear officers warn protesters
before they fired. rCLI saw a women get shot in the shoulder with a rubber bullet.rCY

Officers kicked and beat a man as he tried to enter through a hole in
the fence, and then they pulled him through. The man, whom organizers identified as Nicholas Dickman, was arrested. A photograph shows him
lying on the ground, face bloodied, with missing teeth.

Jennifer Ozanne, a protester who traveled from California to try to take
the beagles, arrived at 8:45 a.m. to find that hay bales had been placed
to stop people from nearing the fence, which was topped with barbed
wire. She said she saw protesters pepper-sprayed and shot with rubber
bullets.

Katie Benner is a correspondent writing primarily about large
institutions that shape American life.

The post Activists Tear-Gassed at Failed Raid of Beagle Research
Facility appeared first on New York Times.
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"This is the first Quantum War, the observer effect is being expertly
used by both sides. Schr||dingerrCOs Strait is simultaneously open and
closed, it switches states depending on who is observing it and talking
about it. The War is over but it was never a war. The ceasefire holds in
spite of there being no cessation of fire. Freedom of navigation is
sacred and inviolable, thatrCOs why werCOre blockading the Gulf of Oman." posted by 'Chunk' on MoA blog.

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