Gus

Gus the angry donkey, who isn’t angry anymore, was rounded up from the Black Mountains of Arizona in 2017 and spent three years in BLM holding corrals in Utah.

He was sent to a TIP trainer in Oregon to be gentled for adoption, but he did not want to be a domesticated donkey. He would charge the trainer with teeth bared if she tried to get close to him. He made it clear in many different and dangerous ways that he was not into people and would rather be left alone.

The BLM didn’t want to take him back as he was fairly unadoptable. His body is covered with battle scars from the wild, there are chunks missing from his ears. We understood that under all that anger was a whole lot of hurt and fear. We didn't want this burro to have to fight anymore. He needed sanctuary and we were happy to give it to him. 

Gus has never been anything but sweet with us. As is so often the case, the human needed to change, not the donkey. Once he felt safe and was treated with kindness and respect, his anger evaporated. His former trainer has never inquired about him since he came to Skydog.

We placed Gus with other boy donkeys, but he kept leaving them to be with some mustangs, who didn’t bond with him. So we turned him out with a much less wild group with everything from horses, donkeys, and zonkeys. He walked in so casually you would think he had known them his whole life. He was immediately accepted and embraced. When we moved the big donkey herd over to a new area, three branded BLM burros, Gus, Kizmet, and Wonky Donkey, chose to stay with their mustang friends in Buddy’s herd.

#skydoggus

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.