About 1,000 animal welfare protesters who tried to gain entry to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin have been 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 on Saturday.