A Twin Cities dog rescue is about to get a lot noisier.
Between 30 and 40 Beagles that were part of a group of about 1,500 dogs rescued from a controversial research breeder in Wisconsin will arrive in Minnetonka Tuesday night.
Rachel Mairose is founder and executive director at the Bond Between, which is taking in the dogs.
"This is definitely a different scenario because usually we're getting mixed breeds, tiny puppies, adults, everything from Chihuahuas to Great Danes," Mairose explains. "And tomorrow will just be a ridiculous amount of beagles."
Jennifer Bohm is Vice President of rescue operations, and says they received an overwhelming amount of foster applications after announcing the beagles would be arriving.
"I want to say within the first, I think it was four or five hours, we had over 23 new foster applications that were specific to beagles," she said.
Bohm also says very little is known about the dogs coming in, but that hasn't stopped an overwhelming interest in them.
"And in a situation like this where we have so many coming in, and we won't know sex or age or anything like that until they get here really because of how they're getting processed at Richland," Bohm adds. "It's nice to know that you have so many people willing to open their homes."
Rescue organizations struck a deal with Ridglan Farms to pay for the release of the dogs after a judge found probable cause the farm committed crimes of animal cruelty.
“They started within an hour or so coming up to us, wanting attention. Some crawled in people’s laps. Every single one of them are super sweet,” Lauree Simmons, president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, said Sunday. “I think they are loving the attention. I just know they know they’re safe.”
Ridglan Farms agreed in October to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on felony animal mistreatment charges. The firm has denied mistreating animals, but a special prosecutor determined that Ridglan Farms was performing eye procedures that violated state veterinary standards.
About 1,000 activists from across the country came to Ridglan Farms in the rural village of Blue Mounds, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Madison, on April 18 in an attempt to take the beagles. They were met by police who used tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. The Dane County Sheriff’s Department said 29 people were arrested and five face felony burglary charges.
Activists have filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin alleging that police used unnecessary force. Ridglan has said those who tried to break in were a “violent mob” who launched “an assault on a federally licensed research facility.”
