Mrs. Tiggywinkle

Mrs. Tiggywinkle was the first donkey we have saved on a Giving Tuesday.  We rescued her from an Oklahoma kill pen in 2023. She was chosen to be a companion for Curly Girl, a mustang who panicked when the donkey she came with was sold and taken away. We first tried to locate him and buy him back, but when that didn’t work out, we asked if there was another donkey on the lot. There was just one. She had arrived with a group of friends, who were bought as livestock guardians or roping dummies - a cruel fate. No one had so much as asked about her because of her appearance. Tiggy has what’s known as a "broken crest”: excessive fat deposits along the crest of her neck due to improper diet. She was all alone and needed us desperately.

Mrs. Tiggywinkle was visibly consumed by loss as she stood all alone in the middle of the filthy, muddy kill pen. In quarantine, she was deeply depressed. She didn’t want to eat and stood quietly staring off in grief. This gentle, sensitive being had been treated so badly that she just gave up.

When she arrived at Skydog, she met our wonderful volunteer, Bobbi, who has a special gift with traumatized animals. As she stroked her gently, Tiggy raised her weary head and placed it on Bobbi's shoulders. She soaked up the loving energy like a sponge once she sensed that she was finally safe and home.

It’s incredibly important to make sure donkeys don’t get too much sugar as they can’t metabolize it. It causes all kinds of complications, including making them founder.  Their feet become terribly sore as the sugar blows them out and leads to the coffin bone rotating into their soles. We have most of our donkeys on teff hay, which contains the least amount of sugar - aside from straw, which some people use as donkey feed. Up in Oregon, when we buy huge loads of hay (e.g. 100 tons) we have the grasses tested to determine the sugar content. The first seasonal cutting of  hay has way higher sugar, so we tend to buy second or third cutting for that reason. Even the time of day it is harvested makes a difference as the sugar content fluctuates during the day.

Clare named her Mrs. Tiggywinkle because she thought the donkey looked like a “Mrs.” and she loved the Beatrix Potter stories in her childhood. She will remain in Malibu to enjoy a gentle retirement in senior assisted living, where we hope she might find comfort with Charlie Brown, who has also lost a friend. Tiggy is a lovely choice for a sponsor, who prefers to visit Skydog Malibu to interact with the equines, rather than admire them from a distance in Oregon wild.

#skydogmrstiggywinkle

Mustangs & 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.