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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, announced this week that a controversial dog breeding facility in Wisconsin would be turning over their remaining beagles to a no-kill dog rescue.
“Today, we’re highlighting a major win for animal welfare,” Kennedy said in a video statement. “Ridglan Farms, a dog breeding facility that supplied animals for research, will transfer its remaining 475 beagles to a large, cage-free, no-kill dog rescue. Most of those dogs will leave the facility immediately and begin the path toward adoption and permanent homes.”
Last month, the facility – which had been breeding and supplying animals for alleged biomedical research for decades, according to Fox News – began transferring its 2,000 dogs to different rescues around the country.
According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Big Dog Ranch Rescue has purchased many of the dogs as part of a legal agreement as the breeding facility winds down its operations. This also follows federal scrutiny of animal acquisitions for research amid urging by congressional lawmakers for Secretary Kennedy to take a closer look at how federal funding and NIH research may be linked.
Ridglan Farms agreed in 2025 to give up its breeding license by July 1, 2026, as part of a legal deal, per Fox, amid allegations of animal mistreatment. It is unclear if Ridglan received any federal funding, but an NIH spokesperson told the outlet that the facility did not, describing it merely as a “commercial dog breeder, not a research facility…”
“We are committed to humane animal care and to replacing animal testing with effective alternatives wherever possible, and we’re turning that commitment into lasting change,” Kennedy said in his statement regarding Ridglan Farms and animal testing.
He announced the creation of a new National Institutes of Health office, ORIVA (Office of Research, Innovation, Validation, and Application).
According to the NIH, this new office “will coordinate NIH-wide efforts to develop, validate and scale New Approach Methodologies, or NAMs, including 3D human tissue models, computational tools and other animal-free methods that can better reflect human biology. The office will also serve as a hub for interagency coordination and regulatory translation.”
Kennedy simplified this explanation, describing the office’s function as one that “will accelerate the development and use of humane-based research technologies that help reduce reliance on animal testing across all of NIH.”
Secretary Rollins, in her statement, said that USDA had taken action to hold Ridglan Farms accountable for humane animal care. “Accountability matters, animal welfare matters, and enforcement matters,” she said.
Rollins touted the USDA’s partnership with the HHS in pursuing animal welfare in America.
“This is what responsible government looks like,” she stated. “Agencies working together and protecting animal welfare.”