05/19/2026
CALL TO ACTION: OVER 500 BEAGLES AND E. COLI AT RIDGLAN-THEY NEED YOUR VOICE!
Please read my letter below and the actual letter in the pictures.
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CALL TO ACTION:
Tell DNR the Ridglan Farms manure trench tested at 1,850,000 MPN/100 mL E. coli and ask DNR to publish the lab report, warn the public, notify DATCP and the prosecutor, and require immediate remediation.
1. File a DNR environmental violation complaint here:
https://wi.accessgov.com/dnr/Forms/Page/8500-005/form8500-005.
2. Email the Dane County agricultural runoff contacts:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
MY LETTER TODAY:
VIA EMAIL
May 19, 2026
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Re: Demand for Immediate DNR Action and Public Notice
Concerning Ridglan Farm. E. coli–Contaminated Trenches
Dear DNR Officials:
I am Susan Chana Lask, Esq., counsel who filed the federal civil-rights action Baird et al. v. Agard et al., No. 3:26-cv-00374, Western District of Wisconsin, arising from the April 18, 2026
Ridglan Farms protest and beagle rescue incident.
My complaint warned that Ridglan Farms’ manure trenches created a biological hazard to
rescuers, protesters, animals, surrounding landowners, and the public. The complaint is publicly
available here:
https://appellate-brief.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/4-23-26-Complaint_Ridglan.pdf
My warnings are now proven true.
I obtained the attached Wisconsin State Lab Report, dated May 8, 2026, of samples collected at Ridglan Farms on April 23, 2026 from the easternmost end of the manure channel, identified
as Field No. RFC, SU-Surface Water, which is actually the start of a some 200-foot long trench filled with manure to deliberately harm protestors on April 18. That report found:
5,120,000 MPN/100 mL total coliform;
1,850,000 MPN/100 mL E. coli; and
5,953,883 gene copies/mL Ruminant Bacteroides detected.
Those numbers are extraordinary - particularly the E Coli. The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s own water-microbiology guidance states that beach advisories begin above 235
MPN/100 mL E. coli and beach closure occurs above 1,000 MPN/100 mL E. coli.
Ridglan’s manure channel result was 1,850 times higher than the level used for beach closure.
A condition that would close a public beach should not be kept silent by DNR when people were exposed, hundreds of dogs remain at the facility, and nearby landowners and wells may be
affected.
Public Health Madison & Dane County has already conceded this major hazard as on April 20, 2026 to Charles Kay of Inside-Out Garden Design asked Public Health for its position on “raw
sewage spread in mass quantity on the earth outside of any treatment system,” and on April 28, 2026, Brandon Macomber, Environmental Health Services Supervisor, Public Health Madison & Dane County, responded that this “is not an acceptable practice in Dane County or Wisconsin.” He further stated that lawful land-spreading of septage or municipal biosolids is
DNR-regulated and must use acceptable and safe methods, including pathogen destruction or reduction such as lime or heat treatment before land-spreading.
Ridglan’s manure trench must be judged against that standard. The lab report does not show treated waste, pathogen reduction, or lawful biosolids management. It shows untreated f***l
contamination at extreme levels.
DNR has direct authority and responsibility under Wis. Stat. § 281.12(1) ...
DNR must also notify Public Health Madison & Dane County as Wis. Stat. § 254.59 requires ...
DNR must notify DATCP because Ridglan is a regulated dog-breeding/dog-selling facility and the contamination bears directly on facility sanitation, animal health, housing conditions, inspection, and licensing.
DNR must notify the Dane County prosecutor handling Ridglan’s manure storage citation because the lab report is material to any
citation prosecution, prior criminal plea settlement, abatement order, or remedial condition.
This is not merely a permit case and far more than the mere citation the County issued that carries a nominal some $500 fine.
It is documented f***l contamination involving public exposure, animal confinement, potential runoff, and local health-hazard authority.
A manure channel testing at 1,850,000 MPN/100 mL E. coli is a public-health and environmental fact that the public has a right to know.
I therefore demand that DNR immediately:
1. Publish the WSLH lab report and a public warning on DNR’s website;
2. Identify Ridglan Farms and the manure channel tested;
State the exact lab results: 5,120,000 total coliform, 1,850,000 E. coli, and 5,953,883 Ruminant Bacteroides gene copies/mL;
3. Notify Public Health Madison & Dane County, DATCP, Dane County Land and Water Resources, and the prosecutor handling Ridglan’s manure-storage citation;
4. Require further sampling of the manure channel, runoff areas, downstream areas, soil, and nearby private wells;
5. Preserve all inspection notes, photographs, chain-of-custody records, communications with Ridglan, enforcement records, and prosecution-referral records;
6. Prevent Ridglan from altering, draining, covering, diluting, removing, or destroying the manure channel without documented regulatory oversight;
7. Publicly disclose the date, time, location, courtroom, and access information for the Ridglan manure-storage citation proceeding; and
8. Request that the proceeding on May 27 for the mere citation issued be open, recorded, or broadcast to the fullest extent permitted by Wisconsin law because the public has a direct health, environmental, and animal welfare interest in the outcome...
Very truly yours,
LAW OFFICES OF SUSAN CHANA LASK
/s/ Susan Chana Lask
SUSAN CHANA LASK
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