Animal rights activists set for trial in beagle raid case

Listen to this article

MADISON — The animal rights activists accused of attempting to steal beagles from a controversial Wisconsin research and breeding facility will face trial at the end of September.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Hyland set jury selection for the trial on Sept. 28, with the trial starting the next day and going through Oct. 9.

Wayne Hsiung, a California attorney and animal rights activist, was arrested following the March break-in at Ridglan Farms, a Blue Mounds facility that breeds and raises beagles for research.

He and three co-defendants, Aditya Aswani, Michelle Lunsky and Dean Wyrzykowski, each face four felony counts – burglary, criminal damage to property, theft and attempted theft – carrying a maximum of 31 years in prison.

“We look forward to this trial, where Ridglan’s cruelty and the alleged rescuers’ compassion will be on full display before the jury and the public,” said Chris Carraway, an attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, in a statement. “We are confident a jury will find that animal cruelty was the crime here – and compassion commendable.”

At Hsiung’s initial court appearance April 21, Court Commissioner Brian Asmus banned Hsiung from Dane County, except for hearings or meetings with his attorney.

At a later hearing, attorneys for Hsiung asked Asmus to remove those stipulations and another that banned him from speaking with his codefendants.

At the June 2 hearing, the ban on communication between the defendants was lifted, and the ban on entering Dane County was reduced to a ban on entering the Town of Blue Mounds, where Ridglan Farms is located.

Hundreds of animal rights activists descended upon Ridglan to protest against the farm on April 20. The activists were hoping to take the nearly 2,000 beagles that remain at the facility, but no dogs were removed from the premises.

Videos from the day showed people being pepper sprayed and tear-gassed by law enforcement. About 25 people were arrested.

In a previous raid in March, dozens of activists managed to get into the facility and remove 23 dogs. Twenty-seven people were arrested in relation to that break-in.

The protests followed an October settlement between the state and Ridglan, in which the facility agreed to stop the breeding and sale of dogs by July 1 but was still permitted to conduct its own internal research on the remaining animals.

The settlement came after a Dane County judge appointed a special prosecutor last year to examine evidence against Ridglan Farms gathered by several animal rights groups. Former employees testified that dogs were being mistreated, including having their eye glands removed without anesthesia.

Since the attempted raids, over 1,500 beagles have been released from Ridglan Farms after being purchased by rescue groups. The groups said the sale of the dogs had been in the works before the protests took place.

About 130 more beagles were purchased on June 2 by one of the organizations and will be released on June 3.

An estimated 500 beagles remain inside of Ridglan.