PARIS

We went to Ridgecrest BLM holding pens as they had so amazingly said yes to letting us adopt some special needs mustangs to rehab them and give them a good long life. We took a total of five mustangs, and we all know what their fate would have been. Out of the five taken, the 5th was Paris, and we could tell by the sparkle in her eye that she was a fighter, despite having broken withers and incapable of having a saddle on. This beauty was named Paris because she looks so much like London. She was rounded up from Devils Garden in Northern California by the Forest Service. Again under pressure from local livestock ranchers who wanted the land to graze their cattle on.

The controversy about this roundup was that the horses were offered for one dollar, leaving them even more at risk of being trucked to Canada and slaughtered. Wild horses have been present on the Devil's Garden Plateau since shortly after the first pioneers arrived, with many of the early horses escaped from settlers or were released when their usefulness as domestic animals ended. Paris was adopted out and returned for having broken withers which made it impossible to saddle her. The white marks on her face would have been caused by a too tight rope halter or bridle that rubbed off hair causing scarring where the hair then grew back white. The 2021 Devil's Garden roundup took 506 wild horses, 9 were killed, and many left in holding, so it was important for us to take in as many horses as we could from - leading us to our lucky 5, including our pretty Paris! #skydogparis

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.