Rubber bullets, pepper spray and arrests as protesters try to storm a Wisconsin beagle lab

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BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. (AP) — About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group's leader.

It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles southwest of the capital city of Madison.

Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, in a video statement, said between 300 and 400 protesters were “violently trying to break into the property" and assault officers. He said protesters have ignored designated areas for peaceful protest and blocked roads to prevent emergency vehicles from entering.

“This is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said.

The sheriff's department said a “significant” number of people were arrested out of about 1,000 protesters at the site, but did not give an exact total as they were still being processed Saturday afternoon.

Protesters tried to overcome barricades that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and a barbed-wire fence. Some protesters did get through the fence, but they were unable to get into the facility where an estimated 2,000 beagles are kept, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

“I just feel defeated,” activist Julie Vrzeski told the newspaper about three hours into the operation after no dogs had been successfully seized. Activists moved from the Ridglan facility to protest outside of the jail in downtown Madison later Saturday.

The group Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs had publicized their plans to seize the dogs on Sunday, but launched their operation a day earlier. The X account of the group's leader, Wayne Hsiung, posted a picture of him being arrested on the scene.

The sheriff's department said that a person who “recklessly” drove a pickup truck through the front gate of the property was arrested, “preventing a potentially deadly outcome.”

In March, protesters broke into the facility and took 30 dogs. Twenty-seven people were arrested on trespassing and other charges.

Ridglan has denied that it mistreats the animals, but in October agreed to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges.

On its website, Ridglan says “no credible evidence of animal abuse, cruelty, mistreatment or neglect at Ridglan Farms has ever been presented or substantiated.”