ZZ the Zonkey

ZZ is a hybrid known as a zonkey. He’s a cross between a donkey and a Grevy’s zebra, the imperial zebra, which is the largest of all zebra breeds. Unfortunately, they are also the most threatened.

ZZ can be a hooligan when he gets it in his mind to run mustangs twice his size off their feed. If they won't budge, he throws more kicks per second than we thought was possible. He never seems to land one - it is all for show. He is all bluff and bluster.

He makes a fantastic horse exerciser as his energy is seemingly boundless and he never stops chasing and running. ZZ is in all his glory racing around, up and down the hills.  He loves to play and has wrestled with the best from Buddy to Cassidy.  Bodhi, the son of Goliath and Red Lady, finally found his match in ZZ. They can absorb each other’s strength. Gentle, but precise as they engage in this wild behavior, they learn and practice new moves. Just as often, however, we will find these sparring partners grooming each other, a true sign of friendship and trust.

He was halter broke and there was even video of him being ridden, but those days are over. Whatever tensions were competing between his zebra and donkey genes, ZZ found himself at Skydog, where he is free to explore and express his wild side with joyful exuberance.

We don’t show ZZ all that often because we don’t want his beauty to encourage breeding. As cool as zonkies look, breeding them is a terrible mistake. They are often born with health issues that owners can’t or don’t want to manage. They take on the wildness of the zebra, so they don’t make good pets. Consequently, many are discarded in kill pens.

ZZ was saved from shipping to a canned hunt ranch in Texas - a place where small people pay big money to shoot exotic animals. Accustomed to people, they don’t run away like they would in the wild. Even if they did, they are hunted in enclosures, so there’s no chance of escape. It is just one more way humans have come up with to make animals suffer. 

#skydogzz

Helping Mustangs & Burros

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.