This is the second of my reflections on my experience at the Open Rescue at Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin, held in April, 2026.

The open rescue attempt at Ridglan Farms, Wisconsin on April 18, 2026, forever changed me.  I left two days after the event shaken, but with a renewed commitment to working for the world we want to live in rather than the one we currently live in, or wanting to “be the change” of which Mohandas Gandhi spoke. So what does it mean to “be the change”?How does one live nonviolence in practice?  What does this mean in our daily lives?  This is what I reflected on as I drove home after the rescue. It was not long before I understood more of what that means.

While driving to a doctor’s appointment,  I listened to an interview with Kimberle Williams Crenshaw speaking about her book Backtalker.  She spoke about the need for each of us to speak up, to share what we see and feel and to not stay silent in the face of injustice. I believe this and every day try to live this way. Yet often I struggle with how to find a way to articulate, to speak the truth effectively – meaning communicate the message accurately and without pissing people off. 

The interview ran through my mind as I sat in the exam room. The doctor with whom I had consulted was writing notes into my chart. As he did so, I told him that I participate in a lot of activism and asked if he would mind if I did a little activism with him?  He said sure, rather absentmindedly.  I then asked if he was a Dog lover.  I could tell by the look on his face that he was not. So I quickly said, “no problem, I was just curious.”  He stopped what he was doing and looked at me saying “I’m not a Dog hater or anything – what do you want to share”?   I told him about the Beagles used in research facilities and how I thought he might be interested to know about the open rescue in Wisconsin and the response of police to the nonviolent protest and rescue. I also asked what he thought about medical research on Animals. 

He responded by telling me that he’s never given it much thought – that he only spent about four minutes his whole life thinking about this.  He said, “We doctors read things all the time that reference a given drug which includes the results came from ‘Rodent trials or Canine trials’ – or whatever the species was used, etc.  It’s common and everyone knows Animal testing goes on but no one actually thinks about it.”  But, he added, this is the second time the subject has come up recently.  He told me that he was at a birthday party recently in conversation with a Zoetis veterinarian (Zoetis is a pharmaceutical company I am aware of because they bought Beagles from Ridglan and have facilities near where I live in Michigan).  The veterinarian at the party with whom the doctor was speaking told him about a new drug they were testing on Canines.  He told me they use mammals as test subjects because humans are simply other mammals.

I asked the doctor if the veterinarian had shared that approximately 90% of all drugs that make it through Animal testing fail in human trials?  Or that no drug that fails Animal trials is ever tested on humans? I told him that this seems like a very inefficient system to me. Furthermore, Animal testing laws were enacted in 1938 but in 2022, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 was enacted into law. “The new law amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by authorizing sponsors of novel drugs to make use of “certain alternatives to animal testing, including cell-based assays and computer models, to obtain an exemption from the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the safety and effectiveness of a drug.” The new law also ‘removes a requirement to use animal studies as part of the process to obtain a license for a biological product that is biosimilar or interchangeable with another biological product” .. then Animal testing is not required, it is optional as there are other, more efficient and effective methods available. 

I also pointed out that the fact that we too are mammals means we do share with all other Animals emotional capacity and the capacity to experience pain and suffering both physically and psychologically.  Our brains and souls are enough alike that we all experience emotion similarly, yet our DNA is different enough that drugs impact us differently and one is not a good replacement for the other. So the system we are using is ineffective, inefficient and cruel. 

I thanked him for taking the time to talk to me and allowing me to do a bit of daily activism.  He thanked me for the conversation.  I left smiling. 

The conversation was no more than 4 or 5 minutes long.  Yet, I have a feeling he will think about and look into some of these issues.  He may well talk to other doctors about them.  Perhaps he will look up some of the statistics I used.  And perhaps not.  It’s unlikely I will ever know.  But I did find a way to speak up and I did not piss anyone off and I will count that as a positive for the day. 

Photo caption: Beagle Rescued from Ridglan March 15, 2026.  No one should ever be used for research, certainly not ‘man’s best friend’.  And those who know about it should never normalize the process or accept it.

Permission and photo credit: The Coalition to Save The Ridglan Dogs