04/25/2026
👉 IF YOU ONLY READ ONE ARTICLE TODAY, MAKE IT THIS ONE 👈
"The Beagles Were the Victims. So Why Is the FBI Investigating the People Who Tried to Save Them?" by Shane Walters
“A dog is on the floor of a cage it has never left. [They] has never seen sunlight. [They] has never felt grass under its feet. [They were] born in a warehouse and [they] will die in that warehouse. Right now there are two thousand of them in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. The facility pulls in $2.5 million a year. It has over 300 documented state violations. A judge found probable cause for criminal animal cruelty. Its own veterinarian lost his license for performing surgeries on conscious unanesthetized dogs for nearly twenty years. The federal government has known about all of it for over a decade. The federal government did nothing. This was not by accident. This article is the paper trail that proves it… Read every word of what follows and then ask yourself whose side the government is on.”
The article is a longer read, but this meticulously researched, independent story cover so much important information with the background of the Ridglan case: https://medium.com//the-beagles-were-the-victims-so-why-is-the-fbi-investigating-the-people-who-tried-to-save-them-d8c07703081a
👉 HOW YOU CAN HELP:
💥 Call the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office right now at 608–266–1221, press 4. Demand they intervene and remove every dog from Ridglan Farms before July 1
💥 Call the US Department of Justice comment line at 202–353–1555 and demand the DOJ seize the Ridglan dogs the same way they seized the Envigo dogs in 2022
💥 Follow the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs for the most current updates and ways to get involved at saveddogs.io
👉 FYI, SOME OF THE KEY PLAYERS AT RIDGLAN:
“This was not a system that failed. This was a system that was built.”
💥 RICK VAN DOMELEN: Ridglan Veterinarian and facility manager whose license was suspended by the state board for overseeing illegal surgeries on conscious, unanesthetized animals for almost 20 years is chair of the Town of Blue Mounds Board.
💥 DAVID WILLIAMS, JEFFREY BALLMER, & JIM BURNS: Owners of Ridglan Farms, all three veterinarians, except Burns is no longer licensed, all three were investigated with same cruelty charges as Van Domelen, but they made him take the fall.
💥 KONNIE JERAKEB: Daughter of Ridglan owner Jim Burns works at Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (state agency tasked with overseeing facilities like Ridglan) who has been defending Ridglan in official agency communications, all while calling herself a “proud daughter of a veterinarian,” without disclosing who her father is. (Her father is also no longer a licensed veterinarian)
💥 JERRY BLIZZARD: son-in-law of Ridglan owner Jim Burns, serves as the town constable. Blizzard was the one chasing rescuers on March 15 in a pickup truck, getting so close he sprayed them with mud, smashing his truck into a rescue van and slashing the tired, and threatening rescuers with a knife and baseball bat. Local law enforcement in Blue Mounds is the owner’s own family member.
💥 SHARI (VAN DOMELEN) KACZMARSKI: sister of Ridglan facility manager and suspended veterinarian Rick Van Domelen is a deputy with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction at Ridglan. This conflict of interest was never disclosed. (this connection isn’t reported on in the linked article)
💥 FEDERAL INSPECTOR WELCH: For over a decade, Welch was the only inspector at 24 or Ridglan’s 28 inspections. Welch has a documented pattern of not reporting animal abuse at similar facilities. A secret new policy allowed for inspectors to only review paperwork without even looking at the building condition or dogs for years during inspections. This is despite the state finding 311 violations, and a state inspector putting in writing that “The ammonia was so bad he felt sick during the visit and his throat and nostrils were still burning hours after he left.”
💥 SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT: While this is not covered in the article, there are major concerns about potential conflicts of interest with how Sheriff Barrett has handles investigations at Ridglan, as well as a formal investigation launched into the law enforcement’s extreme, militarized violence against protesters. His outright lies about protestors are easily disproven with copious video footage from on site. Shortly after issuing a chilling warning statement for protesters in a press release leading up to the attempted rescue, he announced his re-election campaign. Hmmm… who do you think is helping finance that campaign?
