cookie

We are pleased to introduce a very special boy named Cookie, named for coloring that resembles an Oreo. This is a story a little while in the making through a series of coincidences and serendipity. Months ago, when the Onaqui herd in Utah was rounded up, we were asked by Jen Rogers at Red Birds Trust to possibly take the young horse, Red Bird, who her trust was named after. He had a large tumor on his lip that extended into his jaw that vets determined to be a treatable issue, so we said yes as special needs horses are what we do best. We checked in with Jen regularly to see how he was doing so it was a devastating shock to hear from her one day that the vet at the corrals had decided to euthanize him and not offer him for adoption after all. It killed us.

When Jen was at the Delta facility she saw three horses who had been returned. Two had been horribly starved almost to death and the other had been returned because the person didn't want him anymore. They all had a bad start to their life in the human world and when I saw a picture of one of them my heart leaped as he looked identical to the colt we had been looking for who was the son of Blue Zeus and Nike. He had been captured with them but we hadn't been able to find him in any facility. I immediately inquired about him and it turned out that he had been rounded up in Utah.

We have an incredible donor in Europe who has been a massive support to us due to the fact that she has her own American Mustang, Smokey, who is also from Utah. She always said that if we found any horse from her boy's herd then we could save him and she would donate for him to live out his life at Skydog. Well, Cookie wasn't from the same herd but the next-door herd so good enough. He was coming to Skydog. For our donor. For Red Bird. For Jen, who adopted his filly friend Cheyenne Grace, who had been returned with him, also starved. And for Frisco, his other friend, a lovely three-year-old bay, who was badly injured and euthanized in the BLM corrals before we could bring him home.

And so we didn't hesitate.  Last week Janelle and Koal drove to Utah and picked up little Cookie. He is settled in the arena and is the sweetest, most endearing, and adorable young horse. We are not fundraising for Cookie as he has his very own person across the ocean who is entirely funding his rescue and life at Skydog and at the same time helping so many others in need. Thank you so so much my friend xx #skydogcookie

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.