Beagles relocated from breeding facility

These beagles don't know it, but their lives are about to change. There's this overwhelming sense of fear that permeates throughout this bus. That's why it's so quiet here. This little guy has been shaking for the last hour. They are the last of the beagles from Ridglan Farms, a breeding facility in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, that captured national attention earlier this year when animal activists raided their property. [CHEERING] Just got tear gassed.

The [? lab ?] dog breeder had faced years of state regulatory scrutiny, including alleged violations of state animal cruelty laws. It has denied violating state or federal law. And last month, to avoid prosecution, it agreed to surrender its license.

Our biggest fear were they were going to be fire-saled out to the worst testing facilities. They'd already suffered enough. Who wants to ride back in the lap? Is that you?

Lauree Simmons is the founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue. She spearheaded the effort to negotiate and pay for the release of more than 2,000 beagles from Ridglan. Last week, the final 155 were removed from the facility, and we were there to witness their first moments of freedom at a nearby farm. Many of these beagles have never been outside, never been on the grass before, never experienced fresh air and the breeze. But for every one of these, there are dogs like this who have a much harder time acclimating to freedom. Each year, nearly 40,000 dogs are used in lab experiments across the US, for medical research, cosmetics, and household products. Beagles are the test subject of choice for many of these experiments. And as they are checked by a veterinarian, we see why. It struck me as I watched these vets doing their thing, is, look at this. Not one ounce of aggression during their shots and checkup. They choose beagles because they're so forgiving. You hurt them one day, and they're going to forgive you the next and let you do it all over again. This is in service of us? Yes, in service of us. We're not going to stop until every one of these dogs is out of a testing facility , until this cruel practice is stopped.

Wisconsin inspectors investigated Ridglan between 2024 and 2025, and identified 494 violations, and a Circuit Court judge found that there was probable cause to believe that Ridglan had committed crimes under Wisconsin's animal cruelty laws. But the USDA, the federal agency charged with overseeing commercial dog breeders, cited just four noncritical violations for its dog breeding facility in the last 10 years. Ridglan Farms is located in Representative Mark Pocan's Wisconsin district. To me, that doesn't make any sense. But the hundreds of violations they had, doing surgery without anesthesia, et cetera, to animals, those are not conditions that you're supposed to have.

Ridglan Farms told CBS News that it had not violated state or federal law, and the state claims were wrong. They said the USDA was the leading authority, and that federal inspectors found only non-critical issues at their facility. I think what we saw here was a lapse in how they looked at a facility because when you have that amount of state violations, clearly that stood out.

Behind those audits, thousands of dogs' lives hung in the balance, like these beagles, bred for a life in the laboratory.

We owe it. We owe it to these animals. We owe it to these dogs to stop this. We're America. We're better than this.

Now, these Ridglan beagles are bound for a new life. 1,500 miles away near West Palm Beach, Florida, at Big Dog Ranch Rescue, a 33-acre haven, where 92,000 dogs have stopped on their way to a new home. One of my favorite places here is our Senior Sanctuary.

Dogs of all ages are welcome here. So you say the adoption rate here is-- So high. People can come in. They're in a home-like setting. Sit on the couch. The dog's doing this to them, cuddling up to them. They fly out of here. And senior dogs are the least to get adopted in shelters. I mean, Lauree, I know the goal is to have these dogs adopted into loving homes, but this is pretty amazing. And the last of the Ridglan beagles make it safe and sound. They join hundreds of their litter mates, some of whom arrived just a few months before. Oh, my God. [LAUGHS] Living proof of how far a little love can go.

For me, it's never enough. Until animal cruelty ends, I'll do this till the day I die. But I want it to keep going.