Scout

In 2020, we were asked to take three horses standing in a kill pen in Kansas: a senior mare, Colorado, a filly they said was pregnant (but wasn’t), Angel, and a colt, Scout. They were different from the horses that usually ended up in kill pens back then. They were not old, sick, injured, or broken. They were wild and unhandled with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) brands on their necks. They were an omen of terrible things ahead for thousands of American mustangs.

Scout had lice, eye infections, a belly full of worms and he was so frightened. When they arrived at Skydog, the three clung to one another like survivors of a ship wreck who washed up on shore together. We were told Scout and Angel were too wild and crazy to handle, but as usually happens, they gentled down quickly once they sensed they were safe and treated with kindness. After they were settled and healthy, they were turned out with a small group of mustangs before being released onto a thousand acres with Hawk’s herd. This a big herd, which moves over a lot of ground and he is very happy there.

Scout and Angel were the first mustangs we rescued almost a year to the day after the BLM launched its disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). We suspected this scheme would plunge thousands of mustangs and burros into the slaughter pipeline and we could not feel sorrier about being right. These horses were rounded up from the wild and robbed of so much; betrayed by the very bureau that is mandated to protect them. Instead, they concocted the AIP to pay middlemen to take captured wild equines off the BLM’s hands, dispose of them as they please, and relieve the bureau of all responsibility.

We have been demanding for years that the AIP be defunded. So many people abuse this system to make money by illegally killing mustangs and burros. It is literally is a “subsidy to slaughter”, a “pay to slay”, and too many mustangs and burros are being shipped to slaughter out of greed. Regardless of copious evidence and a law suit we have joined with the American Wild Horse Conservation (@freewildhorses) to shut the program down, the BLM continues to deny this is happening.

#skydogscout

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.