The 308 Counts of Felony Cruelty That the Government Ignored
How many crimes must a corporation commit before the government acts?
One of the curious aspects of modern bureaucracy is its tendency to ignore what seem like indefensible crimes. The philosopher Hannah Arendt called it “the banality of evil,” and it happens when government officials decide that ignoring abuse is simply part of the job. The former US Attorney Alex Acosta offered this excuse in explaining why he failed to vigorously prosecute the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein: “I was told… to leave it alone.”
Just part of the job.
That phenomenon is unfolding right now with respect to the abuse of thousands of dogs at Ridglan Farms, the second largest beagle breeding and experimentation facility in the nation. For the last decade, a mountain of evidence has come forward – from animal advocates, former and current employees, and government inspectors – that Ridglan has committed hundreds, if not thousands, of acts of felony animal abuse, including driving beagles to psychosis in 2’ x 4’ metal cages and surgically mutilating them without anesthesia. In January, a Wisconsin judge concluded that any “reasonably prudent prosecutor” would file felony charges against the company, given the compelling evidence from multiple corroborating sources.
But we have been waiting for more than one year after filing our formal petition against Ridglan in March 2024, and the government has yet to do anything to protect the dogs. This is despite the fact that recent findings by state inspectors show that they know that Ridglan has continued to torture dogs even as it faces legal scrutiny. Internal documents obtained through open-records requests show that government inspectors found in August 2025 that at least 308 additional dogs have suffered from so-called “cherry-eye” surgery without anesthesia – a banned facial mutilation that leaves the dogs yelping, bleeding, and often permanently disabled – beyond the allegations we presented in court. Ridglan’s actions were so blatantly unlawful that the state’s veterinary examining board took the rare action of suspending the license of the company’s vet, after it concluded that the company could not be trusted to comply with legal orders to stop performing unlawful surgeries on dogs.
Yet even with all this, the government has taken no visible steps to protect the dogs.
And the primary reason is a man named Tim Gruenke, the district attorney in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. Gruenke is the prosecutor who was assigned to the Ridglan case, and he has a good reputation. He has been named “Prosecutor of the Year” multiple times in Wisconsin, and he even has a picture of a beagle on his office wall. Yet at every step of his investigation, he has blocked efforts to protect the Ridglan dogs.
He first questioned back in January 2025 whether the government could reasonably prosecute a corporation for animal abuse. We wrote back to him explaining that this contradicts every legal authority on the question: “[N]o one – including corporations – is above the law.”
He then said that much of the evidence of abuse in our complaint was too old, which would present a so-called “statute of limitations” problem. I explained this was incorrect, as the statute of limitations clock would not begin to tick until the end of Ridglan’s “continuing offense.” Even Ridglan concedes that it continues to cage and mutilate dogs. It defends itself instead by arguing it is immune to prosecution as a research lab.
And most bizarrely, in the last few weeks, Gruenke has claimed that the government has no authority to intervene to protect the dogs because: (a) the government cannot impose standard criminal conditions on a corporation (e.g., no contact with victims of your crimes) because a corporation is not a natural person; and (b) the dogs are not necessary evidence in a criminal case and thus can’t be seized via search warrant. But again, this is clearly wrong. The law, as I explained to him by email, allows the state to “impose any nonmonetary condition deemed reasonably necessary to… protect members of the community from serious harm” and does not limit this power to defendants who are natural persons. There is simply no corporate immunity of the sort that Gruenke claims.
Gruenke never responded to my email explaining why he was wrong on corporate immunity. But we subsequently received written verification from Madison City Attorney Marci Kurtz that the Dane County humane officers would refrain from taking any action to protect the dogs, partly due to Gruenke’s opposition, and that she agreed with his stance. I was shocked.
“Even one puppy, hurt and crying after her face was mutilated, or driven to insanity by years in a 2 x 4 cage, is too many,” I wrote to Gruenke and forwarded to Kurtz. “No individual would be allowed to hold animals after such a long pattern of abuse. Let’s treat corporations the same.”
Neither Gruenke nor Kurtz replied to that email.
So why do these bureaucrats continue to ignore the torture of dogs? Simply put, because it’s just part of the job. Government officials are not trained to take on power, but to comply with it. This is particularly true when they are, as Gruenke, in positions of elected office. The biomedical industry is one of the most powerful forces in the state. Doing the bidding of the industry is, de facto, part of the job.
But there is an even more important way that ignoring abuse of animals has become part of the job. In my conversations with Gruenke, the cruelty to animals is treated as something akin to a “regulatory noncompliance,” similar to checking the wrong box on a tax form. While something should be done to fix such problems, to him, it’s not a big deal. Gruenke has also told us that he worries about the heavy workload of the case, given that Ridglan has hired a high-powered law firm, and that he is aiming to reduce the amount of effort required to resolve the case. This is a bureaucrat’s response to busywork.
But this case is not about busywork. This case is about the beagle who screamed in pain as employee Scott Gilbertson trembled and watched his co-worker slice off a piece of the puppy’s eye. This case is about the dog that employee Matt Reich saw partially dismembered in a cage, with her organs falling out, leaving Matt traumatized to this day. And this case is about Julie, the blind puppy whom I witnessed spinning for hours in a cage, trying desperately to escape the metal tomb in which she had been abandoned. Her mind broke from the darkness, and even today, 8 years later, she spins endlessly in a circle, always to the right. To these poor tortured dogs, Ridglan’s abuses were not a “regulatory noncompliance.” They were violent crimes. And it’s time for Gruenke, Kurtz, and the entire government of Wisconsin to reckon with their nightmarish experience.
Ignoring animal abuse, for years, may have been seen as “part of the job” for Wisconsin bureaucrats. But if there is one thing they should learn from the outcry over Ridglan, it is this: when it comes to animal abuse, it’s time for that job to change.
Want to help?
Contact the authorities and demand that they act immediately to protect the Ridglan dogs. You can reach Tim Gruenke by email (tim.gruenke@da.wi.gov) and at his office number (608-785-9604). You can reach Marci Kurtz by email (MKurtz@cityofmadison.com) or at her office number (608-266-4511). It’s enough to simply say, politely, “It’s unacceptable that you’ve failed to protect the Ridglan dogs. Please change course.”
Boost this story on social media. Post on social media that Tim Gruenke and Marci Kurtz are blocking action to save dogs being tortured at Ridglan Farms. Feel free to use any of these photos or videos in your post. Follow my X/Twitter feed if you want some examples.
Join an all-hands-on-deck meeting on Wednesday, October 22 (tomorrow) at 6 pm PT (9 pm ET). We’ll brainstorm a bit how we can save the Ridglan dogs. RSVP here with your email, and we’ll send you a Zoom link about an hour before the call.
Just emailed to protect the dogs!
Sent email to Tim Gruenke, as requested