Earlier this year, officers with a Wisconsin sheriff’s office came across a frightened puppy rescued from a dog fighting ring. They were faced with a question: what should we do with this traumatized dog?

There was no dispute that the dog fighting ring had broken the law. State agencies investigating the ring had concluded the puppy’s “owners” were engaged in felony animal abuse that had left hundreds of dogs mutilated or dead. Indeed, the ring had secretly continued fighting dogs even when it had been ordered to stop. In March 2025, a legal order commanded the ring’s operators to end the illegal dog fights after whistleblowers came forward with allegations of criminal conduct. Yet an inspector visiting the site in September 2025 concluded that 150 more dogs had illegally been subjected to dog fights. The inspector concluded in a written order that “public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action.” The inspector’s agency then sent a letter to the local law enforcement titled “Request for prosecution” and asked for their help in protecting the dogs.

But law enforcement, including the Sheriff, took no action. Instead, they falsely claimed the dog fighter was above the law. There was an exception to the animal cruelty laws, the Sheriff claimed, for dog fighters that were doing research on dogs. And this particular operation claimed to have research on site.

The Sheriff’s position was “absurd,” in the words of one prominent professor of criminal law. The existence of research on site, even if true, had no relevance to whether dog fighting is a crime. It was akin to the Sheriff saying that marijuana had been legalized—so a drug gang could not be prosecuted for murder. The Sheriff’s office was put on notice that his position was wrong: in a sworn declaration of the leading academic authority on the subject, by two state agencies, and even by a prosecutor who had previously worked on the case. The only party that had ever taken the Sheriff’s “absurd” position was the dog fighting ring itself (which, it was later discovered, had extensive ties to law enforcement). Indeed, the very “Request for prosecution” sent by the inspector made clear the Sheriff’s position was wrong. “This request for prosecution does not involve… bona fide research activities and operations,” the inspector wrote. Yet still, the Sheriff refused to act.

Until he was forced to by private citizens taking direct action. Sheriff’s deputies came across a rescue van with a traumatized dog taken from the dog fighting ring. They arrested the driver for theft, and took custody of the dog and seven others rescued from abuse. This new scenario was, legally, very different. An officer who comes across an animal who may be a victim of criminal abuse (or other evidence of a crime) is legally required to hold them “so long as necessary for the purpose of being produced as evidence on any trial.” Further, the state and federal constitution require preservation of evidence that may be relevant to a criminal case; by arresting the driver, the Sheriff had triggered these constitutional rights and the duty to preserve the dog as evidence.

But even these constitutional safeguards fell. The Sheriff chose to send this trembling puppy back to his abusers, where he knew he could be torn apart in a dog fight. By doing so—by violating numerous laws and bringing a victim to a known abuser—the Sheriff moved from inaction to criminal misconduct. Wisconsin law makes it a crime to provide assistance to someone you know to be committing acts of animal abuse. By doing so, you become “party to a crime.” The Sheriff consciously chose to do this. Then, he trumpeted his actions on his website.

This story may sound comically evil or far-fetched. It is not. It is the exact scenario that unfolded over the last few months in Dane County, Wisconsin—with one small difference. The operation in question was not a dog fighter, but a dog testing and breeding facility called Ridglan Farms. Otherwise, every word, date, and quote by a legal expert is taken exactly from the Ridglan case, including the return of a frightened puppy to his abuser. (In this video on the I’ve Had It podcast, I refer to the dog as a girl, but we later realized he was a boy.)

State authorities ordered Ridglan to stop the illegal surgeries performed by non-veterinarians without anesthesia in March 2025, after whistleblowers came forward. When inspectors came back to Ridglan in September, they found evidence that at least 150 more improper surgeries had occurred, despite the order to stop, and wrote that “public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action.” They then referred the case to the local authorities for prosecution, listing out a long history of repeat violations at Ridglan Farms beyond the surgical mutilation of dogs, and explained why the research exception did not apply.

But the Dane County authorities refused to prosecute or even investigate. Instead, they protected the abuser in ways that violated Wisconsin law. The most flagrant example of this was unlawfully delivering a traumatized puppy back to his abuser, along with 7 other frightened dogs. The animal cruelty laws, in short, were not just ignored by the authorities. They were broken.

It’s time for that to change. Today, I and dozens of others will be walking into the Dane County District Attorney’s office with this criminal complaint. The complaint alleges three offenses against the local Sheriff, Kalvin Barrett: felony animal mistreatment; misconduct in public office; and harboring or aiding a felon (i.e., Ridglan Farms). I won’t bore you with the legal details, but I can tell you that this complaint has been vetted by many lawyers and is strong.

But our purpose is not to send anyone to jail, or even convict anyone of a crime. What we need is a promise. A promise that animal cruelty laws will be enforced, impartially. A promise that industry influence will not corrupt the legal process. A promise that, the next time a frightened puppy comes into the hands of law enforcement, he won’t be sent back to his abuser to face torture and death.

He will be rescued, as is his legal right.

It won’t be easy to get that promise. It wasn’t easy the last time we filed a criminal complaint, accusing Ridglan itself of crimes. Many people, including prominent animal lawyers, told us that our petition was somewhere between improbable and crazy. “The industry is powerful,” they said. “The government? Corrupt.”

But I think the puppy who was sent back to Ridglan is counting on us to seek accountability, even when it’s hard. I don’t know what came of that dog. Some of my fellow activists are certain that he was later saved. I hope they’re right. (I sometimes dream of him in a backyard with his family, playing tug of war and getting belly rubs. It brings me to tears.)

What I do know is this: even if he’s gone, we can’t let his story die.

The little lab beagle had nothing in life: no family, no walks, not even a soft place to lie down when he was in pain. But after a lifetime in a metal cage, he was at least promised this: no suffering in death.

Even that small promise, however, was broken. On his last day on Earth, the frightened dog was stomped on the neck and injected with a toxic chemical into his belly. His death would not be a good death. It would be slow and agonizing, as the chemical burned him alive from the inside.

Today, we submitted disturbing new evidence to New York authorities regarding the abuse of dogs at Marshall BioResources, the largest provider of dogs for experiments in the nation. The evidence, which is based on inspection records, photographic evidence, and new whistleblower accounts, is summarized in a criminal referral letter drafted by a former federal prosecutor, Bonnie Klapper, who spent a career pursuing violent drug cartels and knows a criminal enterprise when she sees one. And Klapper’s referral shows that dogs are killed at Marshall in ways that are so “depraved or sadistic” that they constitute felony abuse. Klapper asks Wayne County District Attorney, Christine Callanan, to immediately “open a criminal investigation” and “seize and protect animals” who face imminent torture or death.

In a typical year, hundreds of dogs at Marshall are killed for a kink in the tail, the wrong-colored eyes, or even a mother dog acting too protectively toward her puppies.

One dog, frightened and barking at staff, was stomped on the neck as sodium pentobarbital, a highly toxic chemical, was injected into his abdomen because the staff could not find a vein in his leg. When sodium pentobarbital is improperly injected into the belly, it causes dogs to thrash and scream for 5-10 minutes before they die. The dogs looked as if “they were being burned alive from the inside,” according to a witness to the killings.

Another dog was strapped to a table for so-called inhalation training—a practice where dogs are forced to wear a face mask that will teach them to accept breathing deadly gases, including a chemical agent banned as a literal weapon of mass destruction. The dog tried to “alligator roll” to escape this torment but became tangled in the harness. She defecated and urinated in a panic and struggled against her restraints. When staff members found her, she was already dead.

In a typical week, so many dogs were killed that the bags waiting for the incinerator stood as tall as the men stacking them.

But the killings are just one part of Klapper’s body of evidence. Here are some of the others:

• Dogs being thrown like frisbees into cage walls so violently that it left the dogs’ jaws and heads shaking;

• Conditions so filthy that staff would engage in “panic cleans” before supposedly “unannounced” inspections by regulators; and

• Puppies suffocating to death in food pans, as they desperately searched for warmth on cold winter days by burying themselves in warm bowls dropped in their cages.

This conduct is not just cruel. It’s illegal. New York law makes it a crime when anyone “engages in… any act of cruelty.” That elevates to a felony when a dog is killed in a fashion that is “depraved or sadistic.” Marshall, in other words, is a criminal enterprise. So why has the government failed to stop its abuses?

It’s not because the evidence was particularly hard to find. Evidence of abuse, including leaked photos and video, has been all over the internet in the last couple years. It is an open secret that Marshall abuses dogs.

It’s also not because there are significant legal obstacles. There are clear provisions under state and federal law that give the government the immediate authority—indeed, the duty—to save the dogs.

The reason the government has failed to protect the dogs is that it sees its abusers as “customers.” Internal strategy documents from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the government’s primary inspection agency for animal welfare, show the government describing animal abusers as “customers” to serve rather than corporations to hold accountable to the law.

This bizarre state of affairs has not stopped Marshall from claiming they are “highly regulated and subject to ongoing oversight.” Indeed, in the last few days, the company has been posting incessantly on social media that government inspectors recently gave them a “clean report with no citations” after an “unannounced inspection.” (Marshall conveniently left out that the government has acknowledged that its inspections are “basically meaningless.”)

For a long time, Marshall got away with these lies. But no longer. Klapper’s letter is the first stage in the truth coming out. Over the next few months, there will be more stories about the atrocities committed by Marshall BioResources against defenseless dogs.

More importantly, there will be action. National political allies of our movement, such as Representative Nick Langworthy, are moving to pass legislation to protect the dogs. Protests are unfolding across the nation asking Marshall’s buyers to stop paying for criminal abuse of dogs. And in just a couple weeks, hundreds of people will be marching right up to the doorstep of Marshall.

Nothing we do now helps the beagle who died screaming as brutal men stomped his neck. But everything we do now will determine what happens to the dogs that are left. So let’s go save the dogs.

What you can do

• Call District Attorney Christine Callanan and Attorney General Letitia James and ask them to rescue the dogs. Both of these elected officials have the authority today to save every one of the Marshall dogs. Our web portal gives you all the info you need. Take action here.

• Join us in Wisconsin this weekend as we prepare for the next rescue effort. Whether through government intervention or direct citizen action, we will save these dogs. And there’s no better place to learn how to do this than the place where we did it last: Wisconsin, the home of Ridglan Farms. Register here.

• The March to Abolish Animal Testing will take hundreds right to the doorstep of Marshall in just a couple weeks—and we want you there with us. The government rarely takes action on cruelty complaints, as the Ridglan case demonstrates. But we can overcome that problem by putting pressure on them to enforce the law. On Sept. 12, we will begin our 207-mile march across New York, culminating on Sept. 26 with a massive rally at the gates of Marshall BioResources. Join us for a day, a mile, or all 207.

• If you are a Marshall whistleblower, we are here to support you. More people are stepping up to share their stories of abuse. We have a world class legal team to help. Feel free to email me at this newsletter—or reach out via Direct Action Everywhere’s whistleblower helpline.

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote those words from a Nazi prison cell, two years before they hanged him. And his words have been on my mind. You see, the company executives and politicians who supported the abuse at Ridglan Farms didn’t usually seem malicious. Take Kalvin Barrett, the Sheriff of Dane County. When I spoke to him on the phone after the March rescue, he was friendly. You could have never guessed that he’d later task his officers with brutally assaulting peaceful rescuers.

What’s unmistakable about the call with Barrett, instead, is that it’s… stupid. Barrett told me, in the tone of a man who sounds weirdly like a TV weatherman, that Ridglan was exempt from the animal cruelty laws. It is not. No statute says so. I had to stop myself from laughing.

Bonhoeffer had similar interactions with members of the Nazi regime. He wrote:

Against stupidity we are defenseless.

Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.

Bonhoeffer learned this lesson at the cost of his own life. But this stupidity is not individual. It’s social — more virus than trait. Bonhoeffer wrote:

[It] is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid… [P]ower in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.

Stupidity of this sort, Bonhoeffer explained, was the result of power and blind obedience. And that’s exactly what happened with Ridglan Farms. Kalvin Barrett is not a mean man, and perhaps not a dumb man, either. But he is a blindly obedient one. And when he was told by the powerful people in Dane County that Ridglan was exempt from the animal cruelty laws, he accepted this position—even when it was clearly stupid and wrong.

But here is the hardest part. The same is true of all of us. For years, I was too scared to rescue animals. I believed the “experts” who told me it was impossible. I was frightened by the state’s threats of punishment. So I blindly obeyed, even when my own reading of the law told me otherwise. I was stupid. And the animals suffered as a result.

We are now changing that. Over 1,000 people showed up at Ridglan to fight a stupid system. And it collapsed. And that’s the thing about stupid systems: if enough people push against them, they always fall.

That is the ultimate lesson of Bonhoeffer’s life. The stupidity of Nazism was its downfall. You cannot build a system on blind obedience. The Sheriffs of the world can tell us these animals must be tortured. Over the long run, the people won’t accept it. And once they rise up, the stupid will fall.

Speaking of which, there’s no better place to learn to fight stupidity than the upcoming Save the Dogs Summit in Wisconsin from Sept 4-6. And today is the last day for early-bird registration! Here’s a provisional schedule that will show you what we’re going to be up to.

And here are five reasons we NEED you there.

Reason 1: 16,000 dogs are facing sickening abuse at Marshall, including being bred for toxic inhalation studies. This is the summit where we’ll prep you to get them out.

Reason 2: To succeed at the next rescue, we need to defend the last one. Just days before the summit, 47 new defendants will be charged with serious crimes. We need to support them—and set a precedent for the right to rescue that is heard across the nation.

Reason 3: New evidence of criminal abuse will be revealed shortly. We want to share this info with you, and strategize together on how we can make sure it has maximum impact on saving the dogs.

Reason 4: We’ll be deploying novel AI-empowered training methods—and teaching you to harness those methods to train others. From a mock trial to astonishing new research techniques, you’ll learn about powerful methods that have never been used before.

Reason 5: You’ll be around some of the most inspiring dog rescuers in the world. It’s not just the 51 defendants but the 100s of others who risked everything to save the dogs. We are stronger together. You’ll see that—feel that—if you come to the summit!

See you in Madison!

The last 150 beagles from Ridglan were released on Wednesday; every last dog is now free.

We’ve established a solid strategy for defending the 47 new defendants who face charges for the rescue, including the Save the Dogs Summit, where we’ll gather to support them in Wisconsin from Sept 4-6. (Heads up: early bird pricing ends tomorrow!)

And we just received fascinating new documents about the police response on April 18 that will help us with the next rescue effort. (More on that in a bit.)

It’s been a week of great news. So you might be surprised to hear that I’ve been feeling despair. While the dogs are free, it should not have been this hard to get the government to enforce the law. The evidence against Ridglan was overwhelming. And yet the government has doubled down on cruelty by pursuing the largest prosecution of animal rescuers in history while doing nothing to hold animal abusers to account.

Some days I look at all of it and think: what is the point? The system is fucked.

But when I start feeling this way, I remind myself of the story of Martin Seligman. Seligman is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he made one of the most famous discoveries in the history of psychology. And he did it by electrocuting a dog.

In the experiment, Seligman placed a dog in a “shuttle box” with two compartments and metal flooring from which he could deliver painful shocks. One side was electrified; the other, a short barrier away, was not. And when a shock was delivered, Seligman noted that the dog “runs frantically about, defecating, urinating, and howling, until it accidentally scrambles over the barrier and so escapes the shock.” All the dogs eventually learned to jump to the safe side of the box to avoid the shock.

But there was an exception. When dogs were placed in a shuttle box where electric shocks were initially delivered to both sides of the box, they would run just as frantically but find no safety. Soon, they would simply lie down on the floor, whining helplessly, as they were repeatedly shocked. Remarkably, this would continue even when the electricity on one side of the box was turned off. There was an easy way to escape the shocks—just jump to the other side of the box—but the dogs had given up. Seligman called it “learned helplessness.” Teach an animal that her efforts are futile, and she loses the ability to see the way out even when it’s just inches away.

Seligman’s goal in the experiment was to understand human despair. He succeeded at that—his work is celebrated across the field of psychology—but he failed to grasp the moral stain in his work: He had reached a breakthrough in understanding human despair by causing despair in dogs. There is nothing to celebrate in that.

But I’m not sharing this story to tarnish an old professor’s reputation. I share it because the pathology Seligman saw in dogs—learned helplessness—extends to the humans who love dogs as well. We have been taught to be helpless in the face of cruel shocks.

This is true of me. I remember when I first learned that dogs from Ridglan had been force-fed industrial laundry detergent. I was shocked. I had to save these dogs.

But for 10 years, the system tried to teach me that it was hopeless to try. I filed a criminal complaint. No one responded. I worked with a journalist to expose the conditions. It was ignored. And when I finally walked right into Ridglan in April 2017, and came out with a blind, frightened puppy—little Julie—the government charged me with crimes.

As the case proceeded, many told me to give up.

“Take a plea,” one experienced leader in the movement told me. “Live to fight another day.”

And there were days when that was tempting. But I refused to accept that we were helpless. Maybe we couldn’t rescue all the dogs ourselves. But I thought we could win people over to this cause.

So we fought. We did small things. A press release. A ten-person protest. Another letter to a politician. Each was insignificant on its own. Each was still a win. And something amazing happened. The momentum started to build, with sympathetic portrayals in the media. Social media videos started going viral. Then, on the first morning of trial, the government dropped every charge against me and my co-defendants. That win taught thousands of people that we can beat the industry. We can rescue the dogs and win in court.

And on April 18, 1000+ people marched right up to Ridglan to bring that lesson to life. Now Ridglan is finished. Its victims will no longer face torture in a vivisector’s cage. They’ll grow old with their families. And it happened because we fought back against learned helplessness.

There is a lesson here, one that Seligman himself later discovered. If you feel helpless, find small ways to make progress—then do these small things over and over until you have taught yourself that you can make a difference. Seligman calls it “the expectation of control,” but I think there’s a better term: learned strength. We have to teach ourselves—and one another—that we have the strength to help.

And now we have to learn that lesson again. There are big obstacles ahead. Our friends face serious criminal charges, including up to 15 years in prison. RFK Jr. and Brooke Rollins made big commitments—to phase out animal experiments—but have yet to deliver on their promises. Most importantly, tens of thousands of dogs remain trapped in laboratory cages, victims of criminal abuse like the phosgene gas experiments inflicted on beagles from Marshall BioResources. In the face of so much cruelty and corruption, it would be easy to learn to be helpless.

But we can’t let that happen. We have to learn to find strength, even in seemingly small actions. The phone call to a legislator. The dinner with a friend who tears up about the dogs. The video of the Ridglan pups that goes on social media. Every step is building our capacity. It’s teaching us to be strong.

That, more than anything, is what we will do at the Save the Dogs Summit: learn strength. The road ahead is a hard one. It would be easy to give up. But we have to see the opportunities, even in adversity. We’ll do that in Madison from Sept 4-6—and create a movement stronger than it’s ever been.

Then, we’ll save all the dogs.

Other stuff

• The Save the Dogs Summit is happening on Sept 4-6 in Madison, WI, and early bird registration ends tomorrow. We’ll be sharing new disturbing evidence of criminal abuse at some of the largest vivisection facilities in the nation—and giving you the practical skills to make “small wins” for the dogs. Just as important, we’ll be holding a rally in defense of the Ridglan rescue on the first day of the summit. Sign up here!

• If you can come early to the summit, attend the preliminary hearing on Sept 2. Forty-seven new defendants face charges, and the evidence will be presented against them for the first time in court. When the courtroom is packed for the rescuers, it changes the entire tone of the proceeding—and helps us gain favorable media. I’ll be there in court. I hope you will, too.

• We are holding our usual weekly call for the Save the Dogs Network on Saturday at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT, and I’ll be sharing some important new evidence we’ve obtained about the police actions on April 18. If you recall, the police used military-style force against peaceful rescuers on that day. And we’ve just obtained internal policy memos on the nature of that police response, which I’ll break down with you tomorrow. Jen will also be sharing some new opportunities to reach legislators, and Ella will talk about updates on the March to Abolish Animal Testing. Here’s the link.

“These beagle puppies… have their throats slit!”

On June 3, 2024, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis accused Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of funding horrific animal abuse: torturing beagles and bunnies in experiments; injecting dogs with ticks; and even slitting puppies’ throats.

“With all due respect, I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Fauci responded. “The experiments go through strict regulatory processes of the humane treatment of animals.”

The allegations of animal abuse made against Fauci have been mocked by the media. Prominent newspapers such as The Washington Post have described them as right-wing conspiracy theories.

But this week, the watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW) dropped proof on social media that it was Fauci, and not Malliotakis, who lied. In an invoice WCW published on X/Twitter, the NIH is shown to be paying for 46 “cordectomies”—the slitting of a dog’s vocal cords. The procedure, which has been criticized by the American Veterinary Medical Association because of the risk of “[b]leeding, acute airway swelling, infection, coughing, gagging and aspiration pneumonia,” was not performed for any medical purpose. Rather, by the NIH’s own admission, it was done to “reduce noise” in a facility packed with distressed dogs. The vivisectors didn’t want to hear the beagles cry while they were force-fed experimental drugs.

And the name of the company paid to engage in this brutal practice? None other than Marshall BioResources, which violated New York’s animal cruelty law, which bans unjustifiably mutilating an animal, by performing the cordectomies. WCW’s evidence shows indisputably that the payments to Marshall were part of a $1.68 million grant from the NIH. And even The Washington Post now acknowledges that the NIH funded beagle experiments—and attempted to hide it by claiming it was a right-wing conspiracy theory.

Join the Save the Dogs Summit in Madison, WI from Sept 4-6 as we share essential skills to rescue the Marshall dogs!

The NIH beagle controversy, however, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government cover-ups of animal abuse. Over the last few decades, the government has systematically conspired with corporations to break the law in order to sustain an abusive industry. Consider this: while Fauci testified about the strict regulatory processes and humane standards in animal experiments, the government’s own internal watchdog, the Inspector General (IG), concluded that the enforcement of those humane standards was “basically meaningless.” The IG condemned the USDA for partnering with animal abusers—e.g., waiving fines and illegally redirecting those penalties into reinvestments into cruel facilities—rather than holding them accountable.

And yet in the last few years, enforcement of welfare standards has somehow gotten even worse. There was just 1 fine for violating the Animal Welfare Act (out of the millions of protected animals) in the first 7 months of 2025, a dramatic decline from the dozens in a typical year—already a very low figure. Fauci repeatedly defended animal experiments as “strictly regulated” even as he knew (or should have known) enforcement was going from meaningless to nonexistent. It’s as if the Mayor of New York City wrote one parking ticket in 2025 then proclaimed his city was free of crime.

Why does the government lie about animal abuse?

The influence of money is part of the answer. The enforcement system for animal welfare laws is a classic example of what’s called regulatory capture, a process by which an industry takes over its supposed government regulators. Over $10 billion in federal taxpayer dollars goes into the animal testing industry annually, and contractors, lobbyists, and even private security companies go back and forth between industry and government positions. These ties are apparent with Anthony Fauci. When he was given the Legend in Leadership award at Yale University in 2021, it was the CEOs of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson—companies that have been implicated in abusive animal experiments—who presented him the award. Fauci was part of a government that should have been “strictly regulating” these companies. But it would be impolite to accuse pharma CEOs of animal abuse when they are bestowing you a lavish award.

But there is another and more important reason the government covers up the abuse: they’ve never faced consequences for lying. While animal advocates have complained about cruel experiments for decades, those responsible for the abuses never faced any penalties. Anthony Fauci is an example of this. Fauci was co-author of a study that injected endangered chimpanzees with the HIV virus in 1984. HIV experiments of this sort were condemned by AIDS researchers and primatologists, including Jane Goodall, as profoundly unethical, and the government eventually phased out the funding. But Fauci never faced any career consequences. To the contrary, he rose to the pinnacle of his field, overseeing billions in grants for the same unethical animal experiments he himself performed on chimps.

But that is now changing. Malliotakis’s grilling of Fauci shows that animal abuse is now a political liability. (Fauci’s recently-released diary shows that, when former President Barack Obama called him in 2021, one of his main complaints to Obama was that people were calling him a puppy killer.) Similarly, the politicians who covered up animal abuse in Wisconsin at Ridglan Farms—District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and Sheriff Kalvin Barrett—are now among the most loathed elected officials in the state. Sheriff Barrett’s Facebook page is filled with people condemning him for supporting the torture of dogs.

That bodes well for the future. Anthony Fauci rose to the highest levels of government power, while lying about the abuse of animals in labs. But he will be among the last of his kind. The truth eventually comes out.

The public doesn’t want our government funding animal torture. It wants our government to stop it.

Other stuff

• You will not want to miss the Save the Dogs summit from Sept 4-6. We can save the dogs at Marshall, and around the nation. But we will need you trained to be the best activist you can be. This summit will be indispensable, as we’ll be doing hands-on workshops on how you can help save the dogs. This includes an immediate opportunity: preparing you for the March to Abolish Animal Testing which starts on September 12 in Albany, NY and ends on September 26 at Marshall’s massive facility in North Rose, NY.

• Preliminary hearings for the 51 Ridglan defendants will be on Sept 2. If you can come early to the summit, join the courtroom mobilization as we defend the rescuers who saved dogs from Ridglan Farms, and push for a precedent for the right to rescue.

• We are now holding weekly all-network Zoom calls on Saturdays at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT. This week, I’ll be discussing the revelation that the NIH funded cordectomies at Marshall—and how we plan to use this and other evidence to press the government to save all the 16,000+ dogs trapped in cages at their facility. We will need your help! Here’s the link for today’s call.

That’s all for now!

Tucked away in a little-read inspection report is the story of a kitten whose tail was chewed down to the bone.

The male kitten was noted as having a serious injury to his tail on March 26, 2023, when he was still with his mom and siblings in a cage at Marshall BioResources. But instead of keeping him with his mom, Marshall threw the frightened boy into an enclosure with other male cats. Records at the facility noted that the other animals quickly converged on the injured kitten and left his injured tail “chewed to the bone.” With his mother gone, and metal walls trapping him in the enclosure, he had no way to protect himself or escape. Marshall killed him on the same day. A mutilated and traumatized cat would have no value in experiments.

Join me and hundreds of other activists in marching against animal experiments starting on September 12. The signup form is here.

We value our freedoms greatly in this nation. The freedom to speak. To worship. To pursue happiness. But the freedom to move is perhaps the one we neglect the most. It’s so basic it’s hard to imagine life without it. Without that freedom, we can’t find food, seek safer shelter, or even escape from those who might hurt us. And yet freedom of movement is just one of the many that the animals of Marshall are denied. In the case of this small kitten, that led to a violent death. In the case of so many others, including 16,000 beagles, it leads at best to a life hardly worth living. Life in a laboratory cage.

It’s for that reason that the March to Abolish Animal Testing feels so poignant. Hundreds of people, including me, will exercise their freedom to take a 200 mile trek from the state capital in Albany to the doorstep of Marshall starting on September 12. One thousand are anticipated to rally on the last day of the march at the gates of the very company where that kitten died. And we will exercise their freedom to move because the animals can’t. We will ask the authorities: How can you justify letting kittens and puppies be brutalized?

The authorities, needless to say, would rather ignore all of this. Marshall is one of the largest employers in the county. As a multinational corporation with facilities in Asia and Europe, as well as the US, its influence is global. Elected figures in the state of New York, and in the local county, have been beholden to its power. Especially in Wayne County, the small county in which Marshall is located, that remains the case. Recent news articles include quotes from Sheriff and House representative defending Marshall and threatening advocates with criminal charges.

And yet something is changing.

For the first time in history, Congress members, even in the area, are speaking out. House Rep. Nick Langworthy showed up at the doorstep of Marshall himself a few weeks ago, only to get the same response that animal advocates get: a call to security.

Social media posts about Marshall are going viral. A typical protest for animal rights, even dogs, is lucky to get a few thousand views. The protests of Marshall and its buyers are often getting millions.

But something else is stirring that shows Marshall’s power is weakening. The people are acting. It’s not just a few politicians or influencers on social media. It’s everyone. Demonstrations at Marshall, a remote region of New York, are getting larger every year. Media coverage is growing, and more positive. The March from Albany to Marshall will be a way to harness that sympathy into something concrete: 1000 people standing outside the gates asking for the animals to be freed.

There will be much more said and written about this effort. There are powerful parallels to marches from history, from Selma to the Salt March. But for now, I just want to invite you to join us. I will be there on the first day, asking the Attorney General and Governor of New York to enforce the law and protect the dogs. We don’t know how they will respond, but we know we are on the right side of history.

And as more people join our march to freedom, it will become obvious to everyone that this is the case—and the animals at Marshall will be freed.

I hope you’ll join us in Albany on September 12.

—-

Other Stuff

• Our strategy to save the dogs is pivoting—and we’ll be talking about it at a call on Sunday at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT. We’ll discuss two promising new developments that could change the timeline of our rescue effort. RSVP here.

• Don’t forget to log in to our activist portal and contact your Congress members about the USDA’s inaction at Marshall. The link is app.savethedogs.io, and it will give you easy instructions on how you can help.

• The right to rescue summit is moving forward on the weekend of September 5. The exact schedule will be worked out soon. Stay tuned!

That’s all for now!

You would think the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would be concerned about dogs being gassed to death with chemical weapons banned under international law, given its responsibility to enforce animal welfare laws. You would think this would be doubly true if two prominent Congressmembers, including one who is a member of the committee with investigative powers over federal agencies, demanded them to act.

And you would be wrong. Because the USDA—the institution tasked with protecting animals—has been captured by the industries that abuse them.

Reach out to your Congressional representatives and ask them to tell the USDA to help the animals suffering criminal abuse at Marshall BioResources. Here are instructions for doing that!

On June 26, 2026, House Reps. Nick Langworthy and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis wrote to the head of the USDA asking for basic information about federal inspections at the largest dog and cat breeding and experimentation facility in the nation, Marshall BioResources of North Rose, New York. Their request comes in the wake of years of damning disclosures about Marshall.

In August 2021, federal inspectors found a series of animals with serious and untreated injuries, including one mama with a puncture wound in her mammary gland.

In May 2023, they found a kitten whose tail had been “chewed to the bone” after being injured and forced to live in a cage with aggressive animals who attacked him.

And in September 2024, whistleblower footage was published showing dogs being trained for so-called “inhalation experiments.” The dogs would thrash on a table, desperately trying to escape the black masks that would soon feed them poisoned gas.

A published study showed the purpose of this training protocol. Marshall beagles were being forced to breathe phosgene gas, a chemical weapon banned by the Geneva Protocol after killing 70,000+ people in World War I. The inhalation training was meant to teach them it was pointless to struggle, even as the phosgene gas ate away at their lungs.

Yet despite this evidence of criminal abuse, the USDA has to date refused to lift a finger to help the dogs. Animal advocates have for years complained that the USDA is letting facilities like Marshall get away with breaking the law, including the federal PACT Act (which prohibits causing serious bodily injury to animals) and the Animal Welfare Act (which requires adequate veterinary care). Indeed, the USDA’s own internal watchdog, the Inspector General, has admitted for decades that its enforcement mechanisms are “basically meaningless” and that its own inspectors often act in cahoots with the agency.

But the USDA’s latest action, ignoring the legal demands of two sitting House members, is perhaps its most brazen yet. Rep. Langworthy is a member of the powerful House Oversight Committee, expressly commissioned to investigate federal agencies for misconduct. He has worked with Rep. Mark Pocan, one of the most progressive members of Congress, to push for greater oversight over experiments on dogs. But even Langworthy apparently has no power to stop the USDA and Marshall from acting with impunity.

The deadline in Langworthy’s letter passed without so much as a word from the USDA.

There is a simple reason for this: legalized corruption. For decades, the USDA has been a revolving door for the industry it supposedly regulates. USDA chiefs from both parties are guaranteed cushy jobs or sweetheart deals with 7-figure payouts when they’re done with their government service. More generally, up and down the USDA’s power structure, the industry has embedded itself in the very agency that is supposed to protect the public (and animals) from its abuses. The noted lawyers Mariann Sullivan and David Wolfson have described this as “foxes” guarding the “henhouse.”

But Langworthy’s letter shows that this corrupt scheme is breaking. Powerful legislators are demanding accountability from the USDA, perhaps for the first time in history. And driving this accountability is public support for their actions. Langworthy’s posts on social media about fighting for the beagles are going viral. One post on Langworthy’s X/Twitter page has 148,000 views—10x the engagement he usually gets. If Langworthy and other politicians continue to go viral for helping the dogs—including, in Langworthy’s case, literally going to Marshall’s doorstep to demand freedom for the beagles—it will set a political precedent for other legislators to follow.

This is why today’s deadline is so important. The USDA is not just blowing off two House members. It is blowing off our democracy. But if more House members speak out—a mere 7 members of the House Oversight Committee can issue a subpoena forcing action—then we can expose the cruelty and corruption at the USDA and inspire action to save the dogs.

And, importantly, you can help us make that happen. Every federal legislator has the power to join Langworthy and Malliotakis in their demand of the USDA. Every US resident has at least 3 legislators—a House representative and two Senators—who are responsible to you. If enough people make calls, post on social media, and push our legislators to act, we can save the Marshall dogs.

But we need people like you to step up.

Here’s how.

Other stuff

• We are revamping our strategy to challenge the dog experimentation industry in light of the additional charges filed against 47 rescues from Ridglan. The trials of the beagle rescuers are an immense opportunity to raise attention to the cause—and defend the right to rescue. So we’re probably going to be reorganizing our strategy towards a defense of rescue in the next few months, including a summit that will be organized around Sept 5-6 in Madison, Wisconsin.

• That does not mean we are letting Marshall off the hook. The next few months will be an important time to continue to educate the public—and the authorities—about the illegal actions routinely taken by mass confinement facilities such as Marshall. The goal will be to push the system to do the right thing and save the dogs.

• My friends at the International Council for Animal Welfare just released a disturbing investigation of battery cages at Kroger, one of the nation’s largest grocers. The video footage is not for the faint of heart. But it’s important for anyone to realize what these corporations are flat out lying to the public. Kroger promised years ago to ban practices that ICAW is now revealing to the public. I’d encourage everyone to sign their petition and take action.

• I’m looking for people in London to assist with a studio and podcast. I’m hoping to relaunch the podcast and start producing more video content. If you know someone who might be interested and has the right skillset—or, more importantly, extreme motivation to cultivate that skillset—let me know!

On Independence Day, the Dane County authorities are defending tyranny.

Yesterday, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed felony burglary charges against 47 additional people—teachers and firefighters, parents and lawyers—for the Ridglan rescue on March 15, bringing the total to 51 defendants. The timing was deeply ironic. Two-hundred and fifty years ago on this day, the founders of this nation dreamed in their Declaration of Independence of a nation that defended “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Today, those who hold power will spend millions to defend a criminal industry that kills and cages desperate dogs.

The distinguished philosopher Peter Singer called it a tyranny 50 years ago. And he was right. From the use of chemical weapons to the deadly force-feeding of laundry detergent, human beings rule these animals by fear.

Now, with this new prosecution, corrupt actors within the government are trying to spread this fear through the movement of rescuers. Fifty-one people, many of whom have no criminal history and literally would not hurt a fly, will face serious felony charges for trying to save puppies from criminal torture or death. We begged Ozanne to enforce the law and protect the dogs. He promised to look into things; to review our evidence; or even just to return our calls. And over and over, he broke his promise—then decided to target us when we acted within our rights to save the dogs. The message Ozanne is sending, on behalf of the criminal enterprises that he represents1, is rule by fear:

“You will comply, or you will pay.”

It is truly a terrifying state of affairs—and one that has, for the last 20 years, radicalized my views on American government. We do not live in a functioning democracy. We do not even really live in a functioning state, at least when it comes to animals; that requires a state to follow its own rules. Even when we irrefutably demonstrate that the powerful are targeting the powerless with violent and criminal acts, the authorities refuse to stop them. And if you challenge this corruption, the powerful will target you, too.

What is one to do?

My first response to this was to reach out to the defendants and offer support. Many will be first-time defendants facing the terrifying power of a corrupt state apparatus. They will need us to back them and stay unified. All of us. If you know one of the defendants, reach out and offer them some support.

But my second response was this:

Bring it on.

Because we are now ready to win this fight. We will no longer be ruled by fear. Twenty years ago, when the animal rights movement faced its first wave of serious prosecutions, it split and fell apart. The largest animal protection organizations condemned fellow activists as “terrorists.” Individual friendships were destroyed, and, in some cases, there was outright betrayal, as in the case of Justin Samuel, who testified against his fellow activists. Repression broke the movement. We had neither the strength nor the strategy to fight back. Heck, we could barely make it into court.

That is no longer the case. Indeed, from Day 1 of our efforts at Ridglan, we planned for exactly this eventuality. The old divisions in the movement have been healed; I consider many in the more “moderate” parts of animal advocacy dear friends. The grassroots is unified; even when forces have tried to divide us, asking for cancelations and purity tests, we have stayed unified. And we have legal strategies that have won historic verdicts. That is why Ridglan’s first effort to prosecute us failed so spectacularly. We made the repression backfire. Now all the dogs are free.

And we will do it again. But this time, we won’t just free the Ridglan dogs. We’ll free them all.

There is much more to say about our strategy for making this happen. And you will hear me (and others) say it. But let me end this newsletter with a response to Ozanne’s message:

“You will comply, or you will pay.”

In another era, it would have worked. But no longer. Because this is what we say in reply:

“We will rescue them, no matter what it takes.”

It is a message of compassion. And in the battle between fear and compassion, compassion will win.

Other stuff

• Support the defendants. We will be meeting with the defendants shortly to come up with a joint legal strategy. In the meantime, give these people some love. They risked everything to save the dogs—and succeeded. They need us to back them! Even just sharing this newsletter can make a difference!

• Conveniently, I was just on the Animal Law Podcast to discuss our recent (partial) victory for the right to rescue in the California Court of Appeals. An appellate court ruled that it was unlawful to forbid me from arguing that my intent was to save animals from criminal abuse in my trial from late 2023. There’s a lot more detail in the podcast, especially for folks who like geeking out on the law. Check it out.

• The line prosecutor in the Ridlgan prosecution, Matthew Moeser, is illegally attempting to delay my trial while charging dozens of other defendants. Sadly, the trial court sided with the prosecutor in violation of my speedy trial rights. But we are appealing the judge’s order.

• I’m looking to potentially hire a “chief of staff” to help me handle operations and communications across a bunch of different organizational contexts. I’m pretty overwhelmed with logistics tasks (from finance to email management) and desperately need help. Send me an email with a CV if you’re interested. Experience is less important than intelligence, curiosity, and self-motivation—but I’m only looking to hire someone who is world-class in these areas!

That’s all for now!

The San Francisco Chronicle wanted me in prison for rescuing dying piglets.

When I was charged with 4 felonies in 2018 for rescuing sick and injured piglets from Smithfield Foods, the paper amplified the company’s claim that the video of our open rescue was “staged in an attempt to manufacture an animal care issue where one does not exist.”

It was just the latest example of the Chronicle accusing animal advocates of exaggeration or even extortion, but I was still flabbergasted. We had clearly outed Smithfield for lying to the public about the usage of so-called gestation crates, 2’ x 7’ cages where mother pigs are forced to live their entire lives. And we had shot the entire rescue using cutting-edge 360 degree cameras, borrowed from a Bay Area virtual reality (VR) startup, to ensure we captured every scene in the farm as accurately as possible. Yet the Chronicle was repeating allegations that we were lying. So I wrote this to the Chronicle:

To stage a VR video would require us to either: (1) somehow create an entire factory farm for us to shoot in VR just for the purpose of tarnishing the company’s reputation; or (2) CGI a VR video, which we have neither the technical ability nor economic resources to do.

(You can watch the video yourself—ideally with a VR headset—and see if it seems staged to you.)

I didn’t ask the Chronicle for a retraction, though I thought we were entitled to one. I asked instead for the paper to link to the actual video and include a quote from us in response. Shockingly, the reporter, Tara Duggan, responded that she had not even watched our investigative video but thought Smithfield’s claim was fair because our posts on social media were “telling a story in a very specific way.” She refused to change her piece.

It felt like the Chronicle wanted me in prison—and would amplify corporate lies to help make that happen.

That’s why yesterday’s featured opinion piece in the Chronicle is so surprising.

Prof. Matthew Liebman and Prof. Justin Marceau, two of the leading animal law scholars in the nation, published a piece in the Chronicle defending my right to rescue animals from abuse in a separate open rescue at an egg farm in California. I was convicted in 2023 for rescuing 37 dying hens at a Sonoma County factory farm. (Some of these animals were literally starving and rotting to death, such as the hen below.)

A court of appeal recently vacated my felony conviction in that case, on the grounds that I was denied the right to present evidence that my intent was to save animals from abuse. But the court also concluded, as a matter of law, that commercial animal abuse is not an “emergency” that necessitates rescue, and therefore left standing one misdemeanor conviction for trespass. As Liebman and Marceau argue in their piece, that is absurd. The animals left to starve at a factory farm are clearly facing an emergency.

This argument is important on its legal merits. Animals across the nation face dire suffering. If rescuers are not even permitted to argue that this is the case, then our courts will effectively join the cover-up of corporate cruelty. Juries, like much of the public, will be deceived about the true conditions in intensive confinement facilities, including not just factory farms but breeding facilities and labs.

But the publication of Marceau and Liebman’s argument is also important because it shows a seismic shift in what’s even allowed in debate. The Chronicle has been one of the most anti-animal papers in the nation. Its support for Smithfield, when I was charged for rescuing piglets, was not an aberration. It also opposed ballot initiatives to protect animals in 2008 and 2018 that were overwhelmingly supported by both Democratic and Republican voters. Our institutions, including the media, are too often bought by corporate money to actually represent the views of the public at large.

That is changing due to popular pressure and independent media. Now, even major mainstream publications must feature opinions such as Marceau and Liebman’s. As I noted in a prior newsletter, The New York Times has published three opinion pieces about animal cruelty in just the last month! And animal rights content by mainstream media outlets, such as this short video by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about the Ridglan rescue, is going viral. (Over 30 million views!)

@journalsentinelMore than 50 activists broke into a beagle breeding facility outside Madison on March 15, taking 23 dogs to an undisclosed location. More than 20 people were arrested. Activists have been trying for years to shut down Ridglan Farms, which breeds beagles for research. To settle a state investigation last year, the farm agreed to surrender its license to sell dogs for research by July. The facility will remain open and can continue breeding dogs for its own internal research. A spokesperson for Ridglan Farms said it is relying on state and federal authorities to help them retrieve the dogs. Read more at the link in bio. 🎥: Footage provided by Wayne Hsiung and Curtis Vollmar #animalrights #beagles #dogs #wisconsin

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Audiences are demanding the truth, not corporate catchphrases. That means that, after years of ignoring our voices—even when we have been falsely accused and face decades in prison—the media is finally airing out the debate.

This is important. I’ve always said that, fundamentally, the problem of animal abuse is one of ignorance, not malice. When we actually have the debate, we win. But for decades, the media has suppressed that debate. Instead, it has published caricatures, attacks, and outright lies by those in power—and refused to even allow us a response.

Now things are changing. Dissenting perspectives are being amplified. And if that continues, as I expect it will, expect the debate to get louder and bigger. And when we finally have the discussions we need to have as a society about what happens to animals, I’m confident the world will change.

Other stuff

• Our Zoom meeting on Sunday at 3 pm ET will show how you can be part of this seismic shift in media for animals. I can’t prove it. But I suspect that the attention around Ridglan is part of the reason the Chronicle decided to publish the piece by Liebman and Marceau. We can make this even bigger—and move the campaign to save dogs from labs into national prominence. But to do that, we need you equipped for that fight. RSVP here.

• Our right to a speedy trial has been denied. I’ll have more to say about this, but it is just the latest example of courts bending to power. The trial is likely being pushed back from September to January, but stay tuned for more.

• It’s my birthday today, and if you want to offer some support, become a subscriber to this blog! We’ll always keep all this content free. But there are some things I’d like to do with it that will take some investment, including relaunching the podcast. I’d be grateful for your support!

This is a report from the frontlines.

We have broken into Elon Musk’s lab, Neuralink, and we can see a primate, a macaque. Through a crack in the vent, we’ve placed a camera that sees everything. The macaque is pinned down with arm and neck restraints. A power drill is on the table next to her. Soon, they will drill metal rods into her head, so they can access her precious brain for experiments. She screams and thrashes, but she cannot escape.

Suddenly, we hear a noise in the hallway. A light turns on, and three men with grim faces appear. They stare at us, shocked by our presence.

“How did you get here?” one shouts.

This is the point we’ve been dreading. A direct confrontation between the animal abusers and animal rescuers at the very site of the violence.

But then something surprising happens: the men with grim faces flee. One jumps over a gate and crashes through a window. Another pulls open a latrine cover and crawls through. The third leaps, grabs onto a railing above him, swings up, and squeezes through a hole in the roof.

“Stop!” I yell, as I run after the men. But they’ve disappeared into the night.

“Call it in.”

Within an hour, dozens of ambulances stream in, and EMTs rush into the facility. The macaques are gently coaxed, two at a time, into the back of spacious trailers with bedding, food, and water. Their babies are placed in special heated trucks; trained staff stay with them, offering infant formula to help them recover from trauma. Helicopters airlift a few to a local hospital to receive emergency intensive care. Within 4 hours, all the animals at Neuralink have been saved.

This is a report from the frontlines. The year is 2060. Five years ago, every nation signed a universal declaration of animal rights. And today, we are shutting down the last animal abuser on Earth.

I began my talk at the Vegan and Animal Rights Conference (VARC) in March with this fictional story, based on a similar story I told in 2016. I meant for the story to illustrate the world we can create together—a world where every animal is safe, happy, and free.

But the story was also meant to create accountability. Ten years ago, I and other organizers at the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) challenged our movement to think bigger: to achieve our greatest dream, animal liberation, in a single generation. We predicted that it would happen by 2055. And the victory at Ridglan this week shows we’re making progress that’s even faster than I would have guessed. The fictional story I told in 2016 is coming to life.

There are three reasons why.

First, institutions are transforming. As I set out in the talk, institutions often seem hard to change. But once change starts, especially when it comes to the expansion of rights, it’s very hard to stop. When I started as an animal advocate in 1999, there were zero state farm animal protection laws. Twenty years ago, there was exactly one. Now there are at least 44.

Second, culture is shifting. Twenty years ago, the vast majority of Americans supported medical testing on animals. Today, half are against it. Indeed, it is one of the few moral issues that has seen consistent momentum in one direction over the last 20 years.

Third, movement power is exploding. In 2006, when anti-vivisection activists were hit with lawsuits and serious criminal charges, the movement fell apart. We simply didn’t have the support and resources to take on the corrupt alliance between the industry and the state. Today, things have dramatically changed. We have lawyers, media connections, and (above all) the diverse grassroots support that a movement needs to take on powerful industries and win.

What this adds up to is rapid change—change that can happen in one generation (or even faster). I’m doubling down on my prediction from 2016 and saying we will achieve animal liberation even faster: by 2040, not 2055.1 But I’m interested in your take. Will we see an end to institutionalized animal cruelty in our lifetimes?

You helped us win the fight for the Ridglan dogs. But there are still tens of thousands of beagles trapped in labs. This is the moment to save them all, as we have unprecedented support behind our movement. (Just yesterday, two members of the presidential Cabinet, including RFK, posted a video in support of the Ridglan rescue.) If we ride the momentum, we can rescue every one of the 40,000+ dogs destined for torture or death in labs across the US by the end of 2026.

RSVP here for the 1-hour Zoom briefing on Sunday at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT where we’ll answer your questions—and get your feedback—about this plan.

We’ll achieve this by focusing on the biggest abuser of them all: the global vivisection giant Marshall BioResources (MBR). MBR has a massive fortress-like facility in North Rose, New York, with more beagles than any lab in the nation—nearly 20,000. And the MBR dogs are victims of chemical warfare, trained to breathe phosgene gas that will drown their lungs in pools of blood. Despite decades of abuses such as these, and a long list of legal violations, the government has refused to protect the MBR dogs.

So we must.

Our strategy at MBR will be simple: organize, campaign, and rescue. We will organize community events that awaken the nation’s conscience. We will campaign to ensure every candidate for office takes a stand. And if the politicians don’t act to save the dogs by Nov 3—Election Day—we will mobilize the largest rescue network in human history to peacefully march from the state capital to MBR to save them ourselves.

In the wake of our rescue, every politician will be challenged to face the public and choose: side with the puppy abusers, or the puppy rescuers. When the dust settles, they’ll side with us.

The strategy will proceed in three stages.

In stage 1, we organize. We’ll recruit 100 regional teams to host “Puppies and Ice Cream” meetups in July of 2026, or other similarly themed events. At churches, universities, or the living rooms of our supporters, we’ll serve delicious vegan sundaes and introduce people to rescue pups. Dog parents across the nation will come to our meetups for community and support. (We all need people we can trust to babysit our furry families!) Others will come for the free food and adorable dogs. We’ll welcome everyone to join, even if they’re afraid to hold a protest sign. But the meetups will end with an inspiring video and ask: join the community to rescue the dogs tortured in labs.

In stage 2, we campaign. We’ll press every politician to take a stand on cutting funding for experiments on dogs and mandating rescue instead. We will use the story of the Ridglan rescue to push all 15,000 candidates for office to make a public statement in support of the MBR rescue. We’ll break volunteers into teams of 10, assign each of them 15 candidates to reach, and give them an AI-powered toolkit to make their mini-campaigns go viral. Every public statement by a politician will be celebrated and posted to savethedogs.io, blown up on social media, and leveraged to push even more candidates to support the rescue. By the end, we’ll have the most powerful people in the nation on our side.

In stage 3, we rescue. Beginning in late July, we’ll organize nonviolence trainings across the nation to prepare 10,000+ people for open rescue. The training will become part of the story, as the largest network of rescuers in history prepares to descend on MBR. We’ll take the lessons from April 18 and create the smartest, fastest, and most courageous team of rescuers the movement has ever seen—with key infrastructure in place to ensure safe rehoming of dogs and informed risk-taking by rescuers. On or around Oct 3—one month before Election Day—we’ll head to MBR with a movement that is 10 times as large as what we had at Ridglan. In the aftermath of the rescue effort, we will bring the fight for the right to rescue not just into the court of law but into the center of national politics.

When the world is asked to choose—puppy abuse or puppy rescue—it will choose rescue. We’ll create unstoppable momentum to free every last animal from a lab.

I just sent this note to our entire network of rescuers.

Ridglan Farms is shutting down, and all the dogs should soon be freed!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your incredible efforts on behalf of these dogs, along with the coalition partners who stepped up. So many dogs are safe because of you.

As recently as late March, this outcome did not seem likely. After the March open rescue, Ridglan’s attorney was still publicly saying the company was merely “reorganizing” and would continue experimenting on dogs, despite the mountain of animal cruelty evidence and the public horror over the abuse of dogs. What changed was the courage, persistence, and compassion you showed the world on April 18. You brought light to a dark and violent place, and the cruelty could no longer hide.

But this fight isn’t over. We are at the strongest point we’ve ever been, and the Coalition organizing committee has a plan to keep building toward the end of all dog experiments by the end of 2026. The upcoming election will be a key opportunity to push decision-makers to do what they should have done long ago: save the dogs.

And to make this fight a national issue, our movement will have to be the change we want to see in the world. We have to show the authorities, once again, that if they don’t rescue the dogs, we will. Stay tuned for more on that.

For now: thank you. This has been a 10+ year struggle. Every hour, every arrest, every sacrifice has been worth it. Thousands of Ridglan dogs once destined for death in laboratory cages are now getting hugs and walks and the thing that every dog wants more than anything: love. They won’t die on a vivisector’s table. They’ll grow old with their families. ❤️

And we’re just getting started. Soon, we’ll get every single dog out of a lab cage and into the happy home that every dog — every animal — deserves.

So many said it could never happen. We proved them wrong.

I’ll have much more to say—including a plan for next steps—in the next 24 hours.

Sometimes, I think about this mother beagle I left trapped in a Ridglan cage back in 2017, and my mind nearly breaks. I have loved dogs my entire life. Hearing one cry outside will send me running out of the house to help. But I left this mom cowering in a 2’ x 4’ metal cage as she struggled to walk. The wire flooring pressed painfully into her red, inflamed paws. Her vocal cords were cut to silence her cries. And the worst was yet to come: torture or death in an experiment.

When I think about it too much, I’ll just start crying. We had our reasons for leaving her behind: space in the car, resources, available hands. But no matter the excuses, one question echoes painfully through my mind:

What happened to this mom?

Maybe you know this despair. The fight for animals has been a losing one for most of the last 50 years. The numbers are almost too large to comprehend: millions in labs, billions in factory farms, and trillions in ecosystems devastated by human encroachment.

But all that is about to change. Because we are near a turning point for animal rights. This might seem like a strange statement, given that I’m facing felony charges for rescuing beagles from Ridglan Farms. The government of Dane County certainly does not seem to be turning the right way. But the government often lags behind the rest of society. When you look more broadly, something is changing in our society’s support for animal rights.

You can see it in the newspapers. Yesterday, the New York Times columnist Ezra Klein published a powerful condemnation of the corruption and cruelty of the pig farming industry. It was one of three opinion pieces published by the Times in the last few weeks challenging the abuse of animals.

You can see the change on social media. Posts not just about dogs, but farm animals too, are going viral. The open rescuer Zoe Rosenberg racked up hundreds of millions of views on her social media after she was put on trial for rescuing four chickens from a slaughterhouse. Chickens, not dogs!

You can see the change in organizing. David Coman-Hidy, who is an astute student of animal rights activism and history, noted earlier this month that he’s never seen as much grassroots, organic support for animal protection as what’s unfolding in this moment. People from all walks of life are hosting events, calling senators, and making the fight for animals a part of their life.

But maybe the most important way you can see the change is in the confidence of animal advocates. People are no longer tiptoeing around the issue; they are speaking out. In 2019, Sen. Cory Booker was asked a question about his personal veganism in a presidential debate and ran from the question with his tail between his legs. In 2018, Ezra Klein admitted that talking about his support for animal rights was the scariest thing he’s done as a journalist.

But now Cory is condemning cruelty to chickens openly. (Again: Chickens, not dogs!) And Ezra is writing about the personhood of pigs. From Ezra’s column yesterday:

Plenty of people would go to great lengths to save a potbelly pig they saw wandering near a street corner, even as they consume factory-farmed pork at the dinner table. That pig is an individual. Breeding sows are an abstraction. We can relate to individuals; we feel powerless before systems. And systems fight to keep us that way.

There is a wave rising to challenge that system of cruelty and deception. And this wave could be much bigger and faster than you think. The reason is that people all over the world, not just Cory and Ezra, are finding their voice.

People often pretend they are ok with animal cruelty because they worry that they won’t fit in with others if they say what they actually think. This is why Ezra found it so difficult to come out as an animal advocate. Recognizing that animal suffering matters changes the way you see everything because animal abuse is everywhere. That separates you from the people around you who are just trying to live “normal” lives. Ezra has called it taking the Green Pill, based on the famous scene in The Matrix. The hero must choose between two pills: one gives you a life of comfortable lies, and the other forces you to acknowledge the disturbing truth. Taking the Green Pill—seeing the cruelty to animals everywhere—is a tough pill to swallow.

But when people see this truth and speak it, it can create a powerful domino effect. The truth spreads, and people are inspired to fight back. And we are seeing that unfolding right now for animal rights. It’s not just the thousands of people who signed up to join the Ridglan rescue, leading to a historic release of over 1500 dogs. It’s the new confidence of the kid at school giving presentations about factory farming. It’s the new courage of the introvert who comes to a horse carriage protest for the first time. People aren’t just taking the Green Pill. They’re speaking out.

That bodes well for the future. When large numbers of ordinary people find their voice, the foundation for a movement is established. We have been waiting for this moment. That mama beagle at Ridglan in 2017 has been waiting for it. Let’s seize it, and never leave another suffering mom behind.

Other stuff

• Negotiations continue for the Ridglan dogs—with more success. We’ve seen a steady trickle of releases, and I’m confident that these negotiations will lead to success. But stay tuned for more updates, as we are hearing that good things are in the works.

• We have a plan to save the tens of thousands of other dogs trapped in labs by the end of the year. Expect it to be released this week. We’ve been getting feedback, and it’s in good shape—and ready for your participation and support.

• The Ridglan prosecution continues—with more unconstitutional actions by the state. The prosecutor in the case, Matthew Moeser, filed a motion last week arguing that the judge should undermine our right to a speedy trial… because one of his officers wants to go on leave. There is, of course, no “leave for officers” exception to the constitutional right for a speedy trial, and we suspect this has more to do with the fact that Ridglan wants to delay this trial as long as possible. We will be vigorously opposing.

That’s all for now. But stay tuned for much more, including a possible leadership summit in late July in NYC!

Today, I’m back in court in the case that could cost me everything: my freedom, my future, and my dreams of a happy life with my wife and family. And the sacrifice is the entire point. Because facing 30 years in prison is the most powerful way for me to show that I mean what I say:

We must rescue the animals, no matter what it takes.

A lot of people might read those words, or hear me say them, and think, “Oh that’s just a rhetorical flourish, right? You don’t really mean it.”

But I do mean it. No matter what it takes. And the reason is illustrated by James, the beagle puppy from Ridglan whom my wife and I have adopted into our family.

When we wake, his floppy attempts to cuddle bring instant joy to the start of our day. James is so excited to see us he falls off the bed as he attempts to burrow into my arms in the morning.

When we go to sleep, James begs me to put him on the bed, then stands on my chest while he unleashes a furious storm of licks to my face. I start chuckling an hour before bed in anticipation of our silly nighttime ritual.

Even as I’m writing this, I have a big, stupid smile on my face. James is love. James is family. James is everything. If James were being hurt, I’d rescue him, no matter what it would take.

And there are still shadows of James’ past life—filled with people who hurt him—in his behavior. He often runs in circles, as if still trapped in a cage. He barks frantically at new objects we bring into the house—boxes, chairs, or even large bags—as if there might be monsters hiding underneath. And he will still occasionally stop suddenly on a walk, trembling uncontrollably, and refuse to take another step. James is haunted by ghosts we cannot see.

When he is afraid, I hold him tight and whisper, “No one is ever allowed to hurt you again. Papa simply won’t allow it.”

And I mean what I say.

The Other Dog

But there is another dog trapped in a cage at this very moment, just like James. There was no open rescue to break him out. No negotiation to set him free. He will be poisoned with toxic gas and drown as pools of blood form in his lungs. He will be cut open and vivisected, his organs picked apart in disturbing experiments. And he will never know love or family. No one will ever even give him a name.

He will just be YPP5, a serial code in an experiment.

And that dog needs me—he needs us—just as much as James. In fact, YPP5 was James just a couple months ago. YPP5 is the serial code seared into James’s ear and thigh.

It is a reminder to me daily: We must rescue the animals, no matter what it takes.

I push myself every day to do everything I can to help these desperate little creatures. And that includes going to prison. If the state chooses to punish me for saving James, so be it. It is a trade well worth taking.

Credibility and Sacrifice

But there is something even greater at stake than my freedom. It’s the credibility of our vision: a world where every animal is safe, happy, and free. To many, that sounds absurd. “Haven’t you heard of lions, bro! Cruelty is nature!” To others, it just sounds too hard. “We’re killing each other. And you’re asking us to be kind to… dogs?”

There’s one thing that can change that: what the Harvard scientist Joseph Henrich calls a “credibility-enhancing display,” or CRED. It can be hard to convince people to take a big change seriously, but whether you’re trying to save animals or get people to use solar panels, it’s much easier when your actions speak louder than your words. If you want people to use solar panels, use them yourself. If you want people to save animals, save them yourself. A study in Nature found that advocates using CREDs were 60% more effective than those who did not.

And, importantly, the single most powerful form of CRED is sacrifice. The monk who burned himself to stop the Vietnam War. The suffrage activists who undertook hunger strikes in prison. The civil rights activists who braved police violence. Actions of this sort don’t just create credibility. They go viral. They are unforgettable. They inspire. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the impact.

We need more of this in the fight to save the dogs. It’s why I’m ok with facing 30 years in prison for rescuing James. Sacrifice was the entire point.

And it’s the point for you, too. Not everyone is going to risk prison time. Some people will sacrifice financial security. Others will sacrifice their reputations or even their careers.

But we all must risk something to save the dogs. That may be hard or scary or even life changing, but you won’t be alone in your sacrifice. Because more and more people are seeing the truth of what happens to animals, and they are saying to the world:

We must rescue the animals, no matter what it takes.

I’ll see you in court.

Some other things

• Today, we will find out whether the court will protect our basic rights—or allow the state to undermine them. Two central issues will be litigated. The first is whether I have the right to contact my co-defendants. They are, of course, witnesses to the case, and we are in a joint defense. Barring us from any contact fundamentally undermines our Sixth Amendment right to present a defense. We will thus be moving the court to lift the unconstitutional order imposed by a commissioner that bars us from any contact. The second issue is whether we will have a speedy trial. This is a right guaranteed by Wisconsin law and the Constitution. But, already, the government has indicated that it will refuse to uphold that right. The prosecutor has stated he is too busy to bring the case in 90 days. Conveniently, Ridglan will likely be closing—its employees leaving and its records disappearing—in that time. We will fight hard today against these unconstitutional efforts by the state. I’ll update everyone on X/Twitter, after the hearing. (We don’t think there will be a livestream.)

• We had a great meeting on Sunday regarding the new plan to save all the dogs. I spoke about the historic opportunity to rescue all the dogs trapped in labs by the end of the year. And we heard from many other people with questions and feedback on that plan—including an inspiring proposal to march from Albany to MBR, the largest vivisection facility in the nation. I will publish the plan shortly after reviewing everyone’s feedback. That should happen in the next 48 hours. So stay tuned.

• In the meantime, we’re looking for organizers, so please apply here—or nominate someone else! While the plan hasn’t finalized, we know that you are an important part of it. I’ll be writing more this week on what we are looking for in organizers. But by far the most important attribute is commitment to our vision: nonviolence, and rescuing the dogs. It is often the case that the best leaders are not the ones to self-nominate. So if you can think of someone who is organized and committed and ready to help, I encourage you to nominate them!

That’s all for now!

For decades, the media was silent about animal rights, even when confronted with atrocities. But something has changed in recent years. And the reason for that is… you.

Since the animal rights movement’s birth in 1975, animal advocates have desperately sought mass media coverage of the horrific abuses committed against animals. But almost always, we failed. Ridglan Farms was a devastating example of this failure. When whistleblower accounts came forward of pyres of burning animals at Ridglan in 2006, there was not a single newspaper article written about the revelation.

How things have changed.

On Friday, one million people tuning into ABC’s Nightline were told the harrowing story of the beagles at Ridglan Farms. The piece goes into gruesome detail as to the abuses suffered by the dogs at Ridglan, such as the surgeries performed without anesthesia. And it ends with a heartwarming scene: one of the Ridglan puppies, Beau, being taken to his forever home.

Then today the New York Times published a remarkable op-ed by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Nicholas Kristof about the pork industry’s corrupt efforts to keep mother pigs trapped in cages. In the piece, Kristof describes the fight for animal rights as “one of the great but incomplete moral revolutions of our lifetime.”

It’s hard to think of a better two days of media in the animal rights movement’s history. And this is a dramatic change from where we were 20 years ago, when Ridglan could literally incinerate hundreds of dogs without even a local newspaper reporting about it.

What changed?

The shift in coverage might be driven by audience preferences for pro-animal content. Public opinion on vivisection, in particular, has transformed in the last 20 years.

There has also been an increase in the availability of independent voices in media. Independent platforms, such as podcasts and YouTube shows, are increasingly dominating the typical American’s media diet. Smart phones and cheap cameras have made it easy for anyone to create content. The former CIA analyst Martin Gurri has argued that this dramatic change in our information ecosystem—the end of the state’s monopoly on communication—has caused the public to revolt against elite control. That revolt has probably benefitted animal rights.

But I think neither of these explanations is really satisfactory. Public opinion on animal rights issues other than vivisection has hardly changed in recent years, yet the NYT is publishing stories on pig rights. And the surge in pro-animal coverage is not exclusive to independent media. Indeed, in many ways, traditional outlets like the Times have been better than YouTube, which has very few prominent animal rights influencers. There is a better explanation for the changing media grounded in the science of social contagion. And that explanation is: you.

The psychologist Jonah Berger at the University of Pennsylvania, perhaps the world’s foremost expert on virality, has pointed out that the modern media climate is driven almost entirely by word of mouth. Precisely because communication has become so cheap, massive chains of social connection can spread new messages quickly across the globe. Berger created an acronym to explain this phenomenon: STEPPS. From the first S (Social currency: people share content that makes them look good) to the last (Stories: people spread ideas in the form of stories), content is contagious when it follows these simple steps. But the driving force behind all of the STEPPS is that they create incentives for an audience to share content.

In short, media goes viral when it harnesses its audience. And that is precisely what’s happened with animal rights. It’s not me or ABC or The New York Times that are changing the media climate. The audience is driving this change. You are driving it.

That is very evident in the Ridglan case. The national media coverage came in the wake of social media explosions. Over the last few months, it feels like every random photo posted about Ridglan immediately reaches 100,000+ people. This gave openings for mainstream media to cover the story, too.

But it’s also true of other animal issues. My friend Lewis Bollard has had numerous posts go mega-viral as he campaigns to get pigs out of cages. Millions of people across social media, including people from all walks of life, shared the story of corrupt politicians torturing mother pigs in gestation crates. That’s surely part of the reason why the Times felt a prominent column was justified.

And this is precisely why we must continue developing the grassroots.

Tomorrow, we’ll have our next opportunity to build that grassroots power. We can launch the fight for animals into the stratosphere—the front page of every newspaper in the nation. But to do that, we can’t count on prominent journalists, celebrities, or even movement “leaders” like Lewis or me.

We’ll count on you.

RSVP for the all-rescuer Zoom on Sunday, May 31 at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT to learn how we plan to make your voice as powerful as possible for animals!

They were killing beagles with the deadliest chemical weapon in history.

In September 2024, the grassroots animal rights organization Camp Beagle released video footage leaked from Marshall BioResources (MBR) in North Rose, NY. In the footage, which was apparently taken by an employee distressed by what she had witnessed, rows of tethered beagles thrash as they attempt to pull masks off their faces. The purpose of the procedure was to train dogs for “inhalation experiments.” Perhaps the most disturbing of these experiments involved phosgene gas, a chemical weapon that killed 85,000 people in World War I and was subsequently banned under international law. In 2015, MBR sold dogs to buyers who poisoned beagles with phosgene and watched as their lungs deteriorated. The goal was to understand what happens to human beings poisoned by the gas, whether through war or an industrial accident. Over many hours, the dogs would agonizingly drown to death, as fluid filled their lungs from the damage caused by the phosgene gas.

Dogs, naturally, do not want to accept being poisoned like this. That makes phosgene experiments difficult to manage, even for beagles (a breed of dog chosen for their docility). The training at MBR was meant to suppress the beagles’ willingness to resist. The dogs needed to learn to simply take the abuse—even if it ended with their deaths.

The phosgene experiments are just one example of what I have described as a war on dogs. And MBR is at the epicenter of that war. Tucked into a seemingly innocent hamlet in upstate New York, very few people even know the facility exists. But it is not just there. It is probably the largest vivisection facility in the world, with around 20,000 dogs—ten times the number of any other facility in the nation—and 40,000+ other animals, including cats, ferrets, and pigs.

It is the Death Star of Vivisection, inflicting more death and destruction on lab animals than any weapon on Earth.

And we are taking on the Death Star next.

RSVP for the all-rescuer Zoom on Sunday, May 31 at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT where we’ll get your feedback on our plan to save all the dogs trapped in labs by the end of 2026.

Seizing the Moment

Just a few weeks ago, on April 18, the largest nonviolent direct action for animals in history unfolded in the Town of Blue Mounds, WI. Over one thousand rescuers descended on Blue Mounds to free beagles suffering criminal abuse at Ridglan Farms. Millions of people were exposed to the horrors of animal experimentation as videos went viral. Public outrage forced the company to release most of the dogs. But while the fight for the Ridglan dogs is not yet over—650 remained trapped in experimental protocols—the Ridglan campaign has to move now to building something even bigger: a movement to end all animal experiments, starting with the Death Star.

This is not simply because of numbers, though the numbers are massive. Half of all experiments on dogs originate at MBR, which is as large as all the other suppliers combined. Winning the fight against MBR is effectively winning the fight against all dog experiments.

And it’s not just because of the national political opportunity before us. Nick Langworthy, a local Congressmember in New York inspired by the Ridglan rescue, has personally visited MBR recently and says he wants to see the facility shut down. He is begging for our support. Now is the moment for us to provide it.

The most important reason we must take on the Death Star is that it solves the Day 2 Problem. The Day 2 Problem asks the question: How are our successes on Day 1 feeding into our successes on Day 2? And, as I have written previously, solving this problem is crucial to making change. The system of animal abuse is so big, and so subject to countervailing influence, that unless you can create feedback loops of activism, progress often disappears.

We can already see that with the Ridglan campaign. Videos that used to get millions of views are now down to the thousands. Media outlets that were knocking down our doors are losing interest in the story. Even the rescuers ourselves struggle with the daily grind of maintaining engagement with the campaign. If we do not create a surge of new energy, Ridglan could easily rebuild its cruel business the moment the world looks away from its abuses.

Taking on the Death Star will give us that surge. All we need is a plan.

Blueprints for the Next Rescue

Over the last few weeks, I and a number of the other organizers of the Ridglan rescue have been hard at work coming up with exactly that plan. And we now have an initial draft. Here are the opening words:

We are going to rescue every one of the 40,000+ beagles destined for torture or death in experiments across the US and UK by the end of 2026. We’ll achieve this by focusing on the 20,000 dogs and cats at the biggest abuser of them all: Marshall BioResources, a multinational with massive facilities in the US (New York) and UK (Cambridgeshire). Then we’ll use the momentum from beating both Ridglan and Marshall—the Death Star of Vivisection— to save them all.

Our strategy will be simple: press the politicians to enforce the law and save the dogs. If they refuse, we’ll rescue them ourselves—by mobilizing the largest rescue network in human history to peacefully descend on the Death Star one month before the November 3 election.

Every politician will be forced to face the electorate and choose: side with the puppy abusers, or the puppy rescuers. When the dust settles, they’ll side with us.

You can read the full plan and leave comments here. But you can also do something even better: join us in making it even stronger. This Sunday at 3 pm ET, I’ll be briefly presenting this plan (and some other brilliant ideas suggested by the April 18 rescuers, including a march from DC to MBR) then asking for your feedback.

We can win the war on dogs. We can save every beagle trapped at MBR, Ridglan, and cruel facilities across the nation—including the exact beagle who was thrashing in an inhalation mask in September 2024. But to do this, we need you. I hope you’ll join us.

Other stuff

• We are looking to find people passionate about transformative uses for AI. If you’ve been following the news, you know that AI is already having transformative effects on the economy, including key industries such as software. But we have yet to see powerful use cases for social, rather than economic, problems. There is some early indication, including this report in Science, which shows how AI can significantly improve democratic decision-making, suggesting AI might have potential in this space. More generally, I’m interested in connecting with extraordinarily talented and committed folks who want to build organizing platforms from the ground up with a focus on how to deploy AI effectively. If this includes you, let me know! Here are some initial thoughts I’ve sketched out on transformative uses for AI that I’d love your feedback on.

• Speaking of which, I’m at EAG in London this weekend. Say hello! This is a conference on how to do the most good with limited resources, and animals will once again be a focus. If you’re at the conference and interested in discussing scalable change, reach out!

• One of the April 18 rescuers, Michael Freeman, penned a great op-ed on why he risked everything to free the beagles. One of the things I hope to do with the plan that will unfold over the next 5 months with MBR is to empower more folks to write pieces like this. Give it a read!

• My friend Jack Hancock has released his new documentary, The Dying Trade, about his relationship with his father, a slaughterhouse worker. Jack has some of the smartest content on animals out there, including some very important work on wild animals, and this is worth viewing.

• I should be back on a more regular writing schedule. The last few weeks have been a little crazy, with final exams, travel, and integrating James into our lives. But I’m hoping that starting this week, I’ll be publishing far more to this newsletter.

That’s all for now!

Moments ago, the prosecution in the Ridglan rescue case filed an updated information adding 3 felony counts to the existing burglary charge. The total cumulative prison time the prosecution can now seek for the four felony charges is over 30 years. I will be arraigned on those charges, along with my co-defendants, at 2 pm CT via Zoom. (You can watch the court hearing live by searching for the Branch 14 livestream here.)

And I could not be happier.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want even a single additional day in jail. Over the last few months, I’ve barely seen my family. Oliver was rescued from a dog meat farm and still lives in trauma. Even 10 years later, he still shakes at times when a stranger comes too close—fearful of the deadly violence he witnessed by human beings in his first year of life. He needs the people he loves nearby.

My wife Rose is going through her own struggles, not just in leading Animal Rising but in facing upcoming trials in September and November. I should be at her side.

Then there is James. Little James, already the light of our lives. Floppy, sad-faced, and endlessly affectionate, James was rescued on March 15 and is still grappling with this big new world. My arms were the first to carry him outside of Ridglan Farms. And he has blessed me with his trust since that day. Everywhere I go—on walks, doing work in the office, even going to the bathroom—he is glued to my side. Every time I come home, he collapses in my lap and gives me endless licks to the face. Every time I leave, he looks up at me as if his world is ending.

I promise him that it’ll be okay, and that I’ll always keep him safe. But I wonder, by going on trial, am I breaking that promise?

Then I remember another promise: the promise I made to the mamas at Ridglan in 2017. On that cold night in Wisconsin, as we walked out with a blind beagle puppy and 2 others in our arms, I looked back and whispered:

“We’ll come back. I promise.”

That promise is as important as the ones I’ve made to Ollie, Rose, and James. And it will now be judged in court by a jury of our peers. It will be a test of our society’s compassion. And I’m betting my freedom that we will pass the test.

And that promise is why I’m happy to be arraigned. There has yet to be a reckoning over the thousands of beagles left to be criminally abused and killed over the last 10 years at Ridglan Farms. This court case is our best shot at bringing the corruption and cruelty to light.

Of course, it’s not just the beagles at Ridglan who need our help. There are tens of thousands of others at places like Marshall BioResources in New York who are desperately in need of aid. And there are unprecedented opportunities to help them. In an election year, politicians will be looking for grassroots support. If we can mobilize people, we can make historic change.

But more on that later. Today, I plead not guilty and face the power of the state, and the corrupt ties between industry and government that left dogs like little James to die. I’m glad to have your support.

Other things

• I will be challenging two unconstitutional actions by the prosecution today. The first is the no contact order, which bars me from contacting defendants in the Ridglan rescue case. There is clear constitutional case law prohibiting this sort of bail condition. I’ll be raising those arguments in court today. The second is the attempt to delay the trial. The prosecutor in the case, Matthew Moeser, claims that his schedule is too busy to meet the speedy trial requirement of 90 days set by Wisconsin law. We will oppose his attempt to delay the trial in hope to bring this to court by August at the very latest.

• The Wall Street Journal published what is perhaps the best piece by the business press on open rescue—and it could have dramatic impacts. I was once told by an experienced hand in animal rights that one piece in the Wall Street Journal is worth 1000 protests. It is read by every important businessperson in the nation. And the piece published by investigative journalist Joe Barrett is brilliant. Give this a read, and use the piece with any conservative or business types if they ask, “What’s the deal with these rescues?”

• I also published a piece today in Current Affairs on rescue as civic duty. One of the most important lessons of the recent MBR trials in the UK is that activism must be framed as community service, rather than imposition of political ideology, to be successful. Rescue is perhaps the best form of activism to frame our activism in this way because of its concreteness. Give it a read, and let me know what you think!

• There is much more for us to achieve with the network that mobilized for Ridglan. We are still not sure whether all the dogs at Ridglan will be freed. I had conversations earlier this week about the status of negotiations and will send something out to this list once I have a clearer sense of the current status. Just as important, we need to seize this moment to build a sustainable movement for change. We have seen in prior movements how quickly attention collapses (and with it, power). I’ve been having discussions with many leaders and scholars about how we can overcome this problem and start building towards real power. We’ll likely schedule a meeting in the next week!

The beagle with the serial code YPP5 seared into his ear burst through the broken window into a bright new world on March 15, 2026.

Moments earlier, my friend Austin had taken this sad-eyed puppy from a cage at Ridglan Farms and thrust him into my hands through a window. YPP5 was trembling. The rush of new sights and sounds—the mass of people in white Tyvek suits, the crack of thunder in the sky—must have been a terrifying experience. I carried him to a member of our rescue team.

“He’s yours. Keep him safe,” I said with one look. And then I went back for more.

The right to rescue is being featured on Radiolab. It’s the dramatic account of how 8 jurors in southern Utah, presented with paper cut-outs of piglets, and banned from hearing the words “animal welfare,” nonetheless sided with rescuers over an abusive industry. Give it a listen!

But before I could take another dog, the police arrived and put me in handcuffs. I watched as they converged on rescuers all around me. My heart sank. Was YPP5 seized by the police? Was he back in a Ridglan cage, destined for surgical mutilation or death?

Would he ever get a hug or see the sun again? Would YPP5 ever get a real name?

I thought of that moment this week as felony burglary charges were formally brought against me and three other rescuers. The government wants to teach us a lesson: it’s not worth it.

What the authorities don’t appreciate is that the repression will backfire. Because the repression is merely highlighting that it is worth it. The public recognizes that abused animals are not “things” but sentient beings with inherent value. And when state repression forces our society to answer the question—what is an animal worth?—the people are siding with us.

This debate is unfolding in criminal trials. This week’s Radiolab episode chronicles how jurors responded to felony burglary charges filed against me for rescuing two injured piglets from the largest pig factory farm in the world. When the prosecutors compared the piglets to dented cans to explain why you cannot steal damaged goods, the jurors revolted and acquitted me.

Another example: on Thursday, a Court of Appeals reversed my felony conviction in California for rescuing 38 distressed hens from an abusive factory farm in Sonoma County. The authorities are trying to force people to accept that animals are things, but we are beating them in court.

The debate is also unfolding in our other institutions. In the past few weeks, multiple legislators and institutions—including Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents the district including Ridglan Farms—have been asked by Ridglan to protect their property and shut down the protests. But Pocan refused the request and joined the activists instead. “Shut. Them. Down,” he wrote on social media.

The New Yorker’s Jay Kang wrote that this rapid institutional change is “a case study in effective activism” driven by “a lot of people willing and ready to go to jail through putting their bodies on the line.” It’s hard to be against grandmas brave enough to face off against police violence.

But the most important place this debate is unfolding is in the animal movement itself. Animal advocacy has existed for millennia, going back to ancient Greek philosophers such as Plutarch, who compared the slaughter of animals to the slaughter of human beings. But for those same millennia, no one has really listened to us.

“Yes, animal cruelty is not great,” the authorities say. “But it’s not that big of a deal.”

But it is that big of a deal. The average experience of a land animal on Earth is that of a tortured creature trapped in a cage. What is happening to YPP5, and other animals, is an emergency. A crime. An atrocity. And we now have people stepping up to show this.

In 2017, when we first started campaigning at Ridglan, we had 6 rescuers willing to risk arrest to save a blind beagle puppy. We got some attention and support, but the Ridglan dogs remained trapped in cages.

In 2026, we went from 6 rescuers to 1,000. And these rescuers risked not just arrest but brutal police violence. And we didn’t just get exponentially more attention. We got the dogs out.1

The Harvard scholar Joseph Henrich has noted the importance of this sort of risk-taking in changing culture. It’s hard to get anyone to pay attention, much less change, if we don’t put our money where our mouth is. But when people start doing this in large numbers—what Henrich calls a “credibility-enhancing display”—things can rapidly change. If people continue to risk everything for the animals, even the authorities will be forced to see them, not as “things,” but as sentient beings.

That includes YPP5. In one of my first calls upon getting out of jail, a member of the rescue team gave me the good news.

“We’ve got him. He’s safe.”

The fight isn’t over. I and my co-defendants face up to 12 years in prison at a trial that will unfold in the next few months. More importantly, there are 40,000 other dogs across the nation still trapped and awaiting torture or death in laboratory cages. More people will need to step up if we’re going to save them.

But it’s worth it. YPP5 is worth it. Because he is not a serial code. He is James. And yesterday, James flew to his new forever home with me, my wife Rose, and our other little boy Oliver. James is family. So too are the other animals of this earth. And we will risk everything to rescue them.

Let them try to imprison us for protecting our families. It will only prove that, when we say the animals must be freed, we mean what we say.

Other stuff

1. The California Court of Appeal has reversed my felony conviction and acknowledged the necessity defense for animals. I am grateful to Prof. Justin Marceau at the University of Denver, who argued my appeal, and the numerous other scholars and lawyers across the nation who supported the case. This includes one of my former professors, Martha Nussbaum at the University of Chicago Law School, and Kristen Stilt, a leading scholar of animal law at Harvard. The deep irony is that the authorities in Dane County are making the same mistake that they made in Sonoma County in my California conviction: asserting that animals are mere things.

2. We need to sustain this whirlwind moment. I’ve written numerous times in recent years about the power of these moments. But among the most important lessons from history is that it’s not enough to harness the moment. We have to sustain its power. I call this the Day 2 Problem, i.e., after you win on Day 1, what do you do on Day 2? I’ll be sharing how we can answer this question later this week.

3. I’ll be speaking about the Ridglan rescue at the Grassroots Animal Rights Summit on May 17 in Washington, DC. This will be our first opportunity to gather with other activists and plan our next move. Don’t miss it!

Something happened in the last 24 hours that should give every animal trapped in a cage hope for the future.

I don’t mean the breaking news that came out yesterday, though it brought tears to my eyes. (I’ll have more to say about that in the weeks to come.)

I don’t mean the beginning of my trial for the rescue of dogs from Ridglan, though that could establish a ground-breaking precedent.

We’re holding a Zoom meeting tonight to discuss the events of the last 24 hours—and our plans to seize this movement to end all experiments on dogs. RSVP here!

What I mean is that a true grassroots political movement is bursting to life. Vox’s journalist Marina Bolotnikova put it best when she described recent events as “a bold and bruising experiment in broadening the movement’s tent beyond the already converted, and carrying animal rights forward into the realm of mass politics.”

What are the signs that this “bold and bruising” experiment is working? The renowned social movement scholar Charles Tilly coined the acronym WUNC to describe the characteristics of social movements that are able to create change. Worthy. Unified. Numerous. Committed.

And what we have seen, in the last 24 hours, is a movement that is showing that it is WUNC.

In the face of shocking police violence, we have maintained the moral high ground. At my hearing yesterday, Karen, a senior citizen who uses a walker, described her pride at participating nonviolently in the April 18 action. “We’re here for the dogs,” she told me. Karen, with the quiet dignity of an elder in our community, showed that we are worthy.

Even as the industry tries to divide us—supported by unfortunate factions within the animal movement itself—the Ridglan response has been a powerful coalition effort. Animal advocates from across the nation, from radical organizations like PETA to relatively conservative groups like Big Dog Ranch Rescue to wonk-ish effective altruists at Coefficient Giving, came together to support saving the dogs. I’ve never seen unity like this in the movement.

And then there were the numbers. At a typical protest, grassroots organizers struggle to get a 10 people to attend. The Ridglan campaign recruited over 1,000. Numbers like this give us real power.

Finally, there is what happened in court today. But I don’t mean with the lawyers and the judge, but with the people who showed up to support. The overflowing courtroom was filled with supporters. Most of them joined the defense of the pups on April 18. The government accused us of violence. It attempted to scare us with tear gas and rubber bullets. But not only did everyone still show up in court; they wanted to do it all again.

“I’ll be there next time,” Karen, the elderly woman with the walker, told me outside of court. “We will do it all again.”

Commitment like this is how the world changes.

Over the last few months, I have been traveling around the world revisiting a thesis I first offered to the movement 10 years ago. Animal liberation—the end to all commercial exploitation of non-human beings—will happen in one generation, I argued back in 2016.

The last few days have strengthened that argument. We are worthy. We are unified. We are numerous. And, above all, we are committed.

As my friend and fellow organizer Aidan Kankyoku put it, we got our asses kicked. And it worked.

This changes everything. A movement with this scale and commitment cannot be stopped. And even as our battles continue—in court and in the next open rescue—we should have not just hope but confidence. Soon, every animal will be free.

Some other things

• The Dane County court found probable cause in my preliminary hearing yesterday—but removed the court order banning me from Dane County. The hearing had far more fireworks and objections than a typical hearing of this sort. Prosecutor Matthew Moeser aggressively objected to every question about animal cruelty; the court commissioner sustained the objections. Unluckily, we drew the same court commissioner in this hearing, Brian Asmus, as we saw at the bail hearing. He was no more sympathetic this time, though my attorneys (Chris Carraway and Kristen Schrank) made a strong case for the defense. Ultimately, while the court found probable cause for a felony and refused to lift my no contact order, it did lift my ban on being present in Dane County. This was the most constitutionally indefensible portion of the prior order, but we will continue the fight against the other restrictions in the weeks to come.

• We’re publishing a report on the lessons from April 18. This past Sunday, we had a long debrief session with all rescuers who participated on March 15 or April 18. We are now releasing a report based on an analysis of that feedback. Check it out here—and leave a comment.

• Some tremendous things have been written about the Ridglan campaign. Marina Bolotnikova wrote the most vivid description of the events on April 18, as a personal witness to the police brutality. Aidan Kankyoku has written what I hope will be the first of many blogs analyzing the impact of the campaign.

• There’s so much more to do, so I hope you’ll join us tonight. Even as the fight against Ridglan may be nearing its end, the fight for dogs and other animals facing torture in labs is moving on to the next step. We’ll be discussing the last day’s news, and how we can sustain and grow this momentum, at the call tonight. RSVP here to get the Zoom link!

On April 18, I held my friend Aditya’s shoulder as he blindly navigated our jail cell. He had been assaulted by police, gassed, and blinded by pepper spray.

Three days later, a Wisconsin court ordered me not to speak with him. I was indefinitely banned from any contact with Aditya and three other people I love—rescuers who’ve risked everything to save beagles from criminal abuse. Our support for one another, apparently, is seen as a bigger threat by the local authorities than the torture of dogs at Ridglan Farms.

It all happened at my bail hearing last Tuesday. Court Commissioner Brian Asmus set the conditions of my release after I was arrested on April 18. The bail amount was so high, $20,000, that even a jail officer expressed shock afterwards. (“Damn! I’ve never seen that for burglary.”) Accused pedophiles and other violent criminals were given bail amounts that were thousands of dollars less.

JOIN THE COURT HEARING TODAY: I’ll be in court today (April 29, 3 pm CT) to face the government’s evidence for the first time and challenge the unconstitutional conditions of my bail. You can find details to join us by livestream or in person here.

But what came next was even more cruel.

“Defendant shall not have any contact, direct or indirect, with Aditya A., Michelle L. [Misha], Melany B., or Dean W.”

These are all people I love.

Aditya is a gentle soul, someone whose Buddhist training shines through in the peacefulness of every one of his words and actions. His dive through a window at Ridglan Farms on March 15, a last-ditch effort to save one more dog, showed the world that true peace is an active force.

Misha is built from the stuff of courage. In our trainings, Misha stood out as someone who would throw their body between a bully and a rescuer, protecting friends from violence.

Melany is a former beauty queen whose compassionate spirit is more stunning than anything one might see at a pageant. In the weeks prior to April 18, she stood outside of Ridglan with her prayers and her camera, even as men threatened to shoot her.

And then Dean, the one whose commitment I know best. Dean was an anxious and soft-spoken college student at UC Berkeley when I met him 10 years ago. But even then, I saw the spark in him, a fierce compassion. That spark has transformed into a supernova. Dean was last seen leaping on hay bales on April 18, as tear gas canisters and rubber bullets whizzed all around him, to rally the spirits of the rescuers.

“Tear gas! Pepper spray! It’s ok!” Dean shouted into a megaphone. And it was—because his courage steeled all those around him.

These four, and so many others, represent what I love most about humanity: courage and compassion. And these four suffered the worst of the state violence on April 18. When Aditya arrived in my jail cell, after being beaten and tear gassed, I had to hold his shoulder and guide him to his bunk bed. He was still blind—with eyes stinging and swollen—from the pepper spray.

Now Aditya and my friends face over 12 years in prison, charged with burglary for our attempt to save the Ridglan dogs. And there is nothing in the world, in this moment, that I want more than to protect my friends.

And the government has taken that away.

In a constitutionally indefensible order, Commissioner Asmus, a former prosecutor who apparently worked under District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, ruled that he would ban us from any contact with one another to “protect members of the community from serious harm.” This was deeply ironic, given that the defendants themselves had just experienced “serious harm”—beatings and terroristic threats—at the hands of Ridglan and the police. (One rescuer on April 18 was beaten and kicked in the face, knocking out two of his teeth and leaving him unconscious on the ground for around 14 minutes. No officer rendered aid, as they are required by law.)

Commissioner Asmus also banned each of us from going near Ridglan—and from the entirety of Dane County. The Dane County ban can only be interpreted as a direct attack on the First Amendment. The only “unlawful conduct” I am alleged to have engaged in within Dane County, where the state’s Capitol is seated, is petitioning the government to enforce the law and protect the dogs.

A criminal law professor I sent the order to was so flabbergasted that he laughed out loud. (“That is absurd,” he said. “These are supposed to be narrowly-tailored.”) Yesterday, our lawyers filed a motion challenging its constitutionality. But this is simply the latest example of lawlessness in Dane County by the authorities. And it is all directed at one purpose: a war on love.

The county government is attacking the friendships among rescuers, not because of any laws broken, but because our friendship targets a powerful industry in Wisconsin.

It assaulted grandmothers holding flowers because it saw their compassion for dogs as a threat to local business interests.

And it has prioritized the prosecution of animal rescuers, while falsely claiming Ridglan is above the law, because it believes love is a greater danger than cruelty.

And in a sense, it is right about this. The love of the rescuers on April 18 is a threat—to the alliance between government and business interests. The assault inflicted on nonviolent rescuers shows how far the legal system will bend towards those with wealth and power, even when they inflict unspeakable cruelty on those who are innocent. The system is bending so far, revealing corruption so deep, that it is on the verge of breaking. Trust in government has fallen off a cliff precisely because of cases like this.

But here is the most important point: love will win. So long as we tell the story of what is happening in court, and at Ridglan Farms, the nation will side with us—and tear down the government’s alliance with corporate interests. I saw this even in the officers arresting me on April 18.

“How do you feel about what’s happening at Ridglan?” I asked. “How do you feel about what’s happening to the dogs?”

The officers were nervous and uncertain, unwilling to look me in the eye or even say a word in response. They knew they were waging a war on love. And they knew that, in the eyes of the public, they could never win.

So let the authorities bring their war on love today in court. Let them try to tear apart our friendships. Let them beat us for our compassion. And, above all, let them try to imprison us for bringing frightened beagles to loving homes.

It is a fight we are more than willing to have. Because in the long run, love will win.