President Trump’s Secretary of Health & Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced Monday with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that Wisconsin-based dog farm Ridglan Farms (which bred and provided beagles to animal testing facilities) will transfer its remaining 475 beagles to a cage-free no-kill rescue facility, where the dogs will have the opportunity to be adopted.
Kennedy thanked the President’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for her “extraordinary leadership” and “for championing this issue.”
[NOTE: As seen below, in May Lara Trump brought her daughter Carolina to “meet some of the Ridglan beagles” at Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Palm Beach, Florida, where Ms. Trump sits on the board of directors.]
Carolina and I got to meet some of these Ridglan beagles at @BDRRescue yesterday!!!!! THE BEST!!!!!
pic.twitter.com/8wvtDIx40I
— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) May 17, 2026
Kennedy also announced the launching of a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) office called the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA), which he described as a way “to speed the transition away from animal testing and toward modern, human-based science.”
According to the NIH website, ORIVA “will coordinate NIH-wide efforts to develop, validate and scale New Approach Methodologies, or NAMs, including 3D human tissue models, computational tools and other animal-free methods that can better reflect human biology.”
Today @USDA @SecRollins and I secured a major win for animal welfare.
Ridglan Farms will transfer its remaining 475 beagles out of a research breeding facility and into the care of a no-kill rescue, where they can begin the path to adoption.
Thank you, @LaraLeaTrump, for… pic.twitter.com/gmxiZeYc7k
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) June 15, 2026
[NOTE: In 2022, a bipartisan group led by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) called on the NIH to accelerate the adoption of NAMs to replace animal testing. During the Biden administration the NIH established an internal working group to review animal-based research in an effort to transition toward non-animal testing methods.]
In February 2024, then-NIH Director Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli released the report on NAMs titled Catalyzing the Development and Use of Novel Alternative Methods.
Bertagnolli ended her tenure at NIH on January 17, 2025, three days before Trump’s second inauguration. Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D. is the current NIH Director.
