Beagles rescued from Wisconsin research facility get new lease on life in South Florida

LOXAHATCHEE GROVES, Fla. — Hundreds of beagles rescued from a Wisconsin research facility made their way to a South Florida rescue organization.

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The pups got a new lease on life after Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Loxahatchee Groves reached an agreement to take in the remaining beagles.

Animal activists fought to save the beagles from scientific testing at Ridglan Farms, near Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, but now this rescue has negotiated a permanent closure of that facility and the transfer of the remaining dogs.

“Today, Big Dog Ranch Rescue has saved all 2,100 dogs,” Avin Nader, the group’s vice president of development, said. “All these dogs were confined to cages, never touched grass before, really experienced human emotion or love before. So, it’s been a lot of work for our team of staff and volunteers, but I can tell you that these dogs have adjusted and adapted very well.”

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Lori Simmons, the founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, and her team of more than two dozen people worked round the clock to vaccinate the Beagles and get them ready for travel, which was no easy task for the dogs that have spent their entire lives inside laboratories, separate from the love and caring they will now receive over the course of the next few weeks.

“Obviously, we’re going to let them decompress, get a little social thanks to our staff and volunteers,” Nader said. “We are still accepting adoption applications. We are doing thorough background checks on every single adopter. We do encourage our adopters to have a fenced-in backyard, to use the fly collars that were donated to us, just to make sure these dogs have the most loving forever homes.”

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