Jack Ordman for Dane County Sheriff

The record

What Happened at Ridglan

This page is the record. Sources are linked at the bottom. Where I draw a conclusion from the facts, I say so plainly, and it's labeled as my view.

The facility

Ridglan Farms is a beagle breeding and testing facility in Blue Mounds, operating since 1966, one of the largest in the country. Roughly 3,200 dogs lived there as of late 2023, in stacked wire cages inside windowless warehouses, never outside.

The documented record, from state inspectors, courts, and sworn testimony:

The conflicts of interest

The people with public authority over the facility's town are the facility's own people. Ridglan's head veterinarian chairs the Town of Blue Mounds Board. The facility owner's son-in-law, Jerry Blizzard, serves as the town constable.

The March 15 rescue, and who got charged

In March 2026, around 50 to 60 nonviolent activists entered the facility and removed 22 beagles. The Sheriff's office referred charges against 62 people, including 33 felony burglary counts. During that action, Blizzard slashed rescue-vehicle tires and drove his truck at and into activists, on video. He was the only person who committed violence against people that day. He was charged with reckless driving and criminal damage. In his public statement, Sheriff Barrett described him only as "a nearby neighbor."

Felonies for the people who exposed the cruelty. Minor charges for the man who drove into a crowd. No charges, ever, for the facility.

April 18

Roughly a thousand people came to Ridglan on April 18th, nonviolent and trained in de-escalation. Our own Sheriff's office met them with tear gas, pepper spray, and less-lethal rounds, much of it fired from behind fences. This was a Dane County operation, run by the Sheriff's own deputies; outside agencies arrived only later. An elderly woman was left unable to stand. A person was knocked unconscious by a police ATV. Deputies took direction from private security contractors. The gas drifted toward the facility, toward the very animals everyone was there to protect.

And not one officer was harmed. There is no evidence a single deputy was so much as scratched. The "violence" the Sheriff warned about never existed, except the violence his operation visited on peaceful people.

A federal class action now alleges excessive force by the Sheriff's office. That case is pending, and those are allegations. What I describe above, I saw.

The 82 dogs (my view)

Between April 18th and the final agreement for the remaining beagles, 82 dogs were sold to laboratories. I can't tell you what happened to each one. But I can tell you what likely awaited them. In my view, when our Sheriff chose to protect that facility instead of the animals inside it, he took on responsibility for what happened to those 82. That is my conclusion, and I'll defend it. You can look at the same facts and draw your own.

Why the response looked the way it did (my view)

The April 18th response was wildly out of proportion: rarely-used munitions deployed by our own Sheriff's office, deputies answering to private contractors, all against people who hurt no one. A response that disproportionate doesn't happen by accident, and I'll be honest about how it looks to me. It looks like a choice. A show of force that conveniently arrived ahead of another budget fight, with the Sheriff's office firmly on the side of a private facility under legal cloud rather than the public it serves. I can't tell you what was in the Sheriff's head, and I won't pretend to. The documented facts are damning enough: the contractors giving direction, the conflicts of interest, the charging disparity, and not a single injured officer. Draw your own conclusions. Mine are not generous.

Sources

More background, including the court findings and the regulatory record, is collected at the links above.

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