Puppy Love: How Opposition to Animal Testing Is Bridging the Political Divide

RealClearInvestigations ^ | 12 May, 2026 | Leighton Woodhouse

[MtnClimber]

BLUE MOUNDS, Wisc. – Ridglan Farms, a breeder of beagles for scientific experiments, has withstood attacks from the animal rights movement for years. Activists have broken into its buildings to document the conditions inside them, rescued some dogs, and pushed Wisconsin authorities to cite the company for animal abuse.

On April 30, Ridglan finally buckled to the public pressure, handing the movement against animal testing one of its biggest triumphs. Big Dog Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy announced that the groups reached an agreement to purchase 1,500 beagles for an undisclosed amount of money. The dogs are being adopted out to families across the country; the remaining 500 may also be freed at a later date.

The hard-won concession was made possible by an unlikely and uncoordinated alliance of advocates from the left and right. While left-leaning animal rights groups like Direct Action Everywhere have carried out past break-in efforts to rescue the dogs, MAGA luminaries Laura Loomer and Lara Trump – President Trump’s daughter-in-law and a board member of Big Dog Rescue – waged a highly visible pressure campaign on the company and the animal testing industry. At a time when partisan divisions continue to widen in the nation, one area of common ground seems to be animal welfare.

“You do have moments that define the progress of a cause,” Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy, said in an interview. “This may be an inflection point.”

The movement has scored other wins recently. In 2022, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 eliminated an agency animal testing mandate that had been in place for the better part of a century. White Coat Waste, a group that advocates against government-funded animal experimentation, was instrumental in defunding dog and cat testing at the Veterans Administration

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS:

[MtnClimber]

Fauci will be upset.

[Red Badger]

We used to have convicts volunteer for experiments, or was that a Hollywood myth?................

[ek_hornbeck]

We should start testing medications on convicted violent felons, particularly those on death row.

Animal models, while useful, are unreliable because rat, dog, pig, or even ape physiologies aren't equivalent to our own.

[Vaduz]

Animal rights activists need to check out where they do tranny work on human animals.

[DesertRhino]

The sick fu@kers in our medical labs have lost all sense of decency. There was a time in America where Lassie ran for 19 seasons and almost 600 episodes.

The experiments Fauci ran are straight up sadistic Mengele stuff. Their loss of humanity is what allowed them to create and unleash covid. Their mentality is what allows Death Panels. Their thinking is the root of the euthanasia and baby-killing trend. Throw in that is mostly financial corruption leaching off of grants.

It’s no minor thing to allow them to do the hideous things they do to dogs.

[dfwgator]

Muslims hate dogs.

[spincaster]

Pisses me off , I love my dogs.

[Wuli]

Yes, many animal rights issues are populist and not Left/Right issues.

[cgbg]

The “follow the science” crowd pushed animal torture.

Most of us are not going to follow that.

[circlecity]

“ Animal models, while useful, are unreliable because rat, dog, pig, or even ape physiologies aren't equivalent to our own.”

Yep. We’ve figured out how to cure several forms cancer in rats. But people aren’t rats.