A.J.

The 5 Amigos

AJ is one of the 5 Amigos, a very special group of deeply bonded burros ranging in age from 12 to 20. They were violently rounded up from their Virginia Range by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in December 2021. Four months later, we found these federally-protected animals in a North Texas feedlot, in danger of shipping on the next load to slaughter in Mexico.

Like so many wild equines eleven years of age and older, the 5 Amigos were deemed unadoptable by the BLM. They were placed in sale authority, where people can buy them for as little as $25. (To put this in some kind of perspective, we bought Blue Zeus in sale authority for just $25.) Whoever purchased these beautiful beings, turned around and sold them for their meat price.

The chances of falling into the slaughter pipeline is high for burros and donkeys due to demand for ejiao. This is a gel made from boiling their hides, primarily for beauty products and traditional medicine. The demand for it in China is ravenous - but the US is the third largest importer of ejiao. Domestic farms in China cannot supply enough animals, so traders take donkeys any place they can get them. This puts the BLM’s unjustified wild burro roundups in an even more sinister light. It places American donkeys and burros at even greater risk of slaughter.

In April of 2022, when we were saving the 5 Amigos, we also saved Archibald, Agnes, and Alice from the Burns corrals. They were from the same herd and rounded up at the same time, so we continued with the letter “A” and named them AJ, Atticus, Albert, Alfie, and Arthur. 

The 5 Amigos were quarantined in Kansas, even though the killpen told us they had already recovered from illness. Burros are particularly susceptible to the diseases that thrive in filthy BLM holding facilities and killpens. Extremely sensitive animals, they are also at high risk for hyperlimpemia with mortality rates of up to 80%. An excess of lipids in the blood is triggered by the extreme stress they suffer in roundups and separation from family and companions.

The videos from their hauler, Carla Lays, showed bewildered animals, who were heartbreakingly cooperative with a total stranger. After everything they had been through, they responded to soft, gentle voices and kindness. Cautious, but curious, they stepped into new situations at every rest stop on the road. Janelle and Koal met Carla in Colorado. They loaded them one last time onto a trailer and drove the final stretch to Skydog. 

When the 5 Amigos arrived, they had body scores of 2-3. Broken incisors, strange growths, and sharp points on their teeth made it difficult to eat hay, so we put him on nutritious, soft, warm mashes. We were still seeing snotty noses and hearing coughs, so they were quarantined on a pasture away from the other herds. Janelle attended to their feet, vaccinations, and dewormer and the vet came to see them. These wild-as-the-wind burros were so good in the chute! AJ and Arthur even allowed their temperatures to be taken and each received a shot of exceed.

When we first saw their photos, AJ looked like a shadow. He’s the only one with a totally dark coat, which we rarely see. When you get up close, he’s quite dashing, but we don’t get close to him all that often since he was released with his friends onto 1200 acres that they share with Blue Zeus & Family. We have to work to track them down for regular herd checks. 

AJ’s herd is welcoming to other donkeys. We have never seen them turn a newcomer away. In April of 2024, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder, Flopsy, Fufu, Bibi, Bluebell and Bitsy were released onto that vast expanse. When we went to see how they were getting along, we found Peppermint Patty, an older donkey, had joined the 5 Amigos and taken up with AJ.  So now we have 6 Amigos, wild, free, and protected for the rest of their lives.

In 2019, the lethal Path Forward for Management of the BLM’s Wild Horses & Burros sold mustangs and burros out to the livestock industry. That three “animal orgnizations” participated in this betrayal is impossible to fathom. Now the official policy of successive administrations, it has given ranchers their program of aggressive roundups. It is turning public lands designated by law for wild mustangs and burros into the province of commercial cattle and sheep. Combined with the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program, it is plunging unprecedented numbers of wild equines into the slaughter pipeline. 2022 was a hideaous year for burros and it’s just getting worse. To raise awareness to their plight, we launched @skydogdonkeys on Instagram with the rescue of AJ, Atticus, Albert, Alfie, Arthur, Archibald, Agnes, and Alice.

Mustangs and burros need your help 

In addition to supporting our work by donating, becoming a patron on Patreon or sponsoring a Skydog, there are several important pieces of legislation to protect American equines currently moving through Congress. It only takes a few minutes to contact your Rep and Senators and urge them to support these bills:

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3475 in the House / S.2307 in the Senate). This bill will shut down the slaughter pipeline that sends some 20,000 American horses and donkeys to savagely monstrous deaths in foreign slaughterhouses every year.

The Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act of 2023 (H. R. 3656) This bill will prohibit the use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the management of wild mustangs and burros on public lands, and require a report on humane alternatives to current management practices.

Ejiao Act of 2023 (H.R. 6021). To ​​ban the sale or transportation of ejiao, a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins, or products containing ejiao in interstate or foreign commerce, which brutally kills millions of donkeys primarily for beauty products and Chinese medicine.

You can Contact Members of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121‬, submitting contact forms on their individual websites, or sending one email to all three simultaneously at www.democracy.io

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches, stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs, and defund the Adoption Incentive Program.