AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show in Wisconsin, where police fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber-coated steel bullets at hundreds of animal rights activists Saturday as they attempted to rescue about 2,000 dogs from a facility that breeds beagles for medical experimentation. The crackdown by Dane County sheriff’s deputies left scores of people injured, including a protester who had two teeth knocked out. Twenty-five people were arrested.

Protesters were attempting to enter a property owned by Ridglan Farms, which agreed last fall to surrender its state breeding license and stop selling dogs to other labs by July 1st as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges. A state judge found Ridglan Farms likely broke Wisconsin animal cruelty laws by housing beagles in brutal conditions, performing surgeries without anesthesia, and leaving wounds untreated, along with other violations. Former workers say some beagles had their vocal cords surgically cut to silence them, a process known as debarking. Ridglan Farms still holds federal research credentials and plans to continue breeding beagles for its own experimentation. Last month, activists successfully entered the property and freed about two dozen beagles, who were subsequently adopted.

For more, we go to Madison, Wisconsin, where we’re joined by Rebekah Robinson with the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs. She’s been involved in the animal protection movement for over a decade. She was one of those arrested at Saturday’s action at Ridglan Farms.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Rebekah. Can you describe exactly what happened on Saturday and why you were involved with this protest?

REBEKAH ROBINSON: Yeah. So, we have been trying for over a decade to get the government to do something to help the Ridglan beagles. And so, on Saturday, nonviolent protesters attempted to rescue those beagles, who were in desperate need of help. These were teachers, veterinarians, students, software engineers. These were ordinary citizens who were trying to help these Ridglan dogs, to go in and take them to safety, get them the veterinary care that they needed. And what we were met with was overwhelming police brutality. There’s no other way to describe it. People were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed and pushed down, injured in horrible ways, after simply trying to help the dogs.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how many people were arrested? What were they charged with?

REBEKAH ROBINSON: So, there are about 25 people arrested. I was one of them. I’m still not clear on what I was charged with. I was given no paperwork. I wasn’t told why I was being arrested. I wasn’t read my Miranda rights. When we asked why we were being arrested, the cops just kind of shrugged. And so, I’m still not clear on why I was arrested. The five who are still in custody are going to be arraigned later today.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about the broader crackdown against animal rights advocates nationwide, particularly under the so-called Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006?

REBEKAH ROBINSON: Yeah. So, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act basically protects any animal enterprise, but it does so in such an unjust way that it essentially limits our First Amendment rights to protest and to expose what’s happening at these corporations. Ridglan Farms is a multimillion-dollar business, but there is no visibility into what happens there. And if we were to try and go in and take footage or try and expose what’s happening there, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is designed to prevent that, to prevent even workers there from sharing their footage and what is going on inside of those buildings.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And why is it continuing to — 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin asking Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy last week why the National Institute of Health continues to provide grants to groups that use beagles from Ridglan Farms for experimentation.

REP. MARK POCAN: We have something called Ridglan Farms, that’s a beagle breeder for research. They’ve had 311 code violations, including very serious harm to the health of dogs. The head of NIH, which you can ask, I said some of the nicest things about — I really like your head of the NIH, that you have — said that there’s a policy about beagle testing that would not allow animals to be tortured. And that’s part of what’s happening with this facility. So, grants are still, in the last month, going to groups that are getting beagles from Ridglan Farms. Could you please take a look at this? Because they are under, right now, not a court order, a settlement to close down part of their breeding facility by July 1st, but they’re not getting rid of the 2,000 beagles they have. And if they don’t, we know what’s going to happen. They’re going to get euthanized. And I just want to make sure that for that commitment, which is a good commitment, not to harm the beagles, right now you’re still giving money to groups through the NIH that are using beagles from this highly questionable farm.

HEALTH SECRETARY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: I have a hard time — I believe you, but I have a hard time believing that. I need to look into this —

REP. MARK POCAN: I would appreciate it.

HEALTH SECRETARY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: — and talk to the office, because we’re trying to end — we’ve done more than any other administration in history to end animal testing.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan questioning the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy. If you can say, Rebekah Robinson, why does Ridglan Farms still hold federal research credentials, and why is it still operating in Wisconsin?

REBEKAH ROBINSON: So, the USDA is responsible at the federal level for inspecting Ridglan Farms. And the USDA has sent the same inspector for over a decade to inspect Ridglan Farms, and he has just been rubber-stamping their operations there. His inspection reports are two to three sentences that basically say, “Yep, everything’s great here.” He’s clearly got a relationship with them. And so, we haven’t been able to get the USDA to step up and actually take a look at what’s going on inside Ridglan Farms. And that’s not just related to Ridglan Farms. The USDA, overall, the inspector general put out a report saying that USDA inspections of puppy mills nationwide has been a problem.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what do you expect to happen July 1 now with the deadline for Ridglan Farms to shut down these particular projects?

REBEKAH ROBINSON: So, on July 1st, Ridglan Farms will no longer be able to sell those beagles. But because of work that we’ve done to let their buyers know about the conditions at Ridglan Farms, those buyers have stopped buying from Ridglan Farms, so they have, essentially, a lot of beagles that they’ve been unable to sell, and those beagles are at risk of euthanasia. We are very concerned that those beagles are simply going to be euthanized en masse, because they can’t be sold and they can’t be used. And so, we’re very concerned about the safety of those beagles. And that’s why we went in, to try to get those beagles to safety.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 20 seconds, Rebekah. Explain what debarking is.

REBEKAH ROBINSON: So, the way it was conducted at Ridglan Farms, the workers would go to the kennel, and they would essentially hold the dog while another worker would reach down the dog’s throat with, like, scissors or forceps. And then they would rip out the dog’s vocal cords and throw them on the ground in these barns. This is what former employees have told us was happening there. It’s a really horrific practice, because the dogs are barking in distress. These are dogs living on wire flooring for their whole lives, never getting outside, never seeing sunlight. And then, so, when they’re distressed and they are barking like that, the workers don’t like it, so they devocalize them, according to the employees.

AMY GOODMAN: Rebekah Robinson, I want to thank you for being with us, member of the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs, arrested at the action this weekend in Wisconsin.

That does it for our show. Tonight, I’ll be at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento for a Q&A after the screening of Steal This Story, Please! Tomorrow, Thursday, I’ll be introducing the film at the Roxie in San Francisco and the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, then at the Seattle International Film Festival, Uptown Cinema in Seattle. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.