06/19/2026
1,635 beagles have been freed from Ridglan Farms following a federal lawsuit, with the rescued dogs distributed among several organizations, chief among them the Beagle Freedom Project. Shannon Keith, the project's founder and an animal rights attorney, confirmed that demand from prospective adopters far exceeds the number of available dogs — declaring, "We just don't have enough beagles!" (ABC News)
But a single number disclosed by Keith reframes the entire story. At a virtual news conference, she revealed that "a few hundred dogs were sold to an institution for testing in May" — a disclosure that casts a long shadow over the rescue's celebrated narrative. (Substack) While cameras captured dogs walking out the farm's gates toward safety, others were quietly moving in the opposite direction — straight into laboratory pipelines.
It serves as a stark reminder that the most important question in the Ridglan story is not how many dogs got out, but how many did not, and what happened to them while the rescue was being publicly celebrated. (Substack)