By Michael Dorstewitz
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
A busload of 50 beagles arrived at the Northern California Beagle Rescue on Mother’s Day, marking their first opportunity to touch grass, breathe fresh air, and feel sunlight after being rescued from a research laboratory.
The dogs brought the total number of rescued beagles to 1,500, with the facility receiving thousands of adoption requests for animals never seen in person. Meanwhile, Dean Guzman Wyrzykowski—the activist who organized the rescue—revealed last week that he is “now facing 31 years in prison—even more than before!” Prosecutors added three felony charges against him prior to his arraignment today. Wyrzykowski stated all because he volunteered to save beagles from criminal abuse at Ridglan Farms.
Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin-based facility operating as both a research laboratory and puppy mill, has been linked to severe animal cruelty. Beagles are confined in steel cages within concrete structures before being sold to other labs. Five years ago, photos surfaced depicting beagles with heads encased in mesh bags filled with sandflies that fed on their faces. In another instance, vocal cords were severed to prevent barking or crying out in pain.
At the time, confusion arose about whether Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded these experiments. Fauci initially claimed he approved the project but later denied it in a published book. Regardless of funding details, neither Dr. Fauci nor anyone else faced criminal prosecution for conducting or authorizing the cruel research.
Last year, the National Institutes of Health closed its last in-house beagle testing laboratory, ending decades of taxpayer-funded experiments that reportedly killed thousands of puppies. Similar cruelty occurs at puppy mills prior to animals being sold to research facilities. In one documented case, an India-born businessman named Shri Thanedar shut down his animal care business, AniClin, in 2010 without providing food or water for 118 beagles and 55 monkeys. Former employees climbed fences to care for the animals until welfare groups intervened.
Thanedar later moved to Detroit, where he was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and then to the U.S. House of Representatives, introducing multiple articles of impeachment.
