Angel

“A spiritual being, who stands in her divine light ”

Angel is a little sorrel mare with a white star and a heart of gold that is brimming with compassion and kindness. Her name describes her personality to a T. She’s a spiritual being, whose ability to forgive humans and stand in her divine light is beautiful and inspiring.

We saved Angel, a filly, Scout, a colt, and Colorado, a senior mare, from a kill pen in Kansas. The three arrived at Skydog and clung to one another like survivors of a shipwreck that washed up on shore together seeking solace. Supposedly wild and crazy, Angel gentled right down once she no longer had to fear for her life. This is what usually happens when rescues are treated with the kindness and respect that does not exist in kill pens.

We were told Angel was pregnant, but she wasn’t. Her belly was big because it was full of worms. Scout was also terribly wormy and so young and frightened.  Emaciated and weak as Angel was, she devoted herself to comforting and caring for him. This is her self-appointed role at Skydog. She’s an angel in need and it comes naturally to her.

She’s one of the horses, like Tesoro and Gabriel, that we bring in to be the first friend to new arrivals and help other horses in need of reassurance. Ghost smashed her face while being run into the trailer too hard at the corrals. Angel joined her and went with her in the chute when she was scared. While Blue Moon’s eye ulcers were being treated, Angel stood by her when she was in the chute to comfort and calm her. When her work is done, we release her back out with her herd.When Jack Sparrow came to us after having one eye removed, Angel helped him integrate into the herd. She protected him from any horse coming too close and introduced him to mares who would become his friends, Skye and Hope. When her work is done, we release her back out with her herd.

When Phoenix and Hawk started sharing a huge parcel of land, there was some tussling over mares in the beginning.  Angel negotiated the peace between them. They have been living in harmony together ever since. Angel is loyal to Hawk, but she moves between all groups, wherever she’s needed.

Angel bonded with Emmaline, who was found beaten bloody, starved and tied to a tree in Alabama. Many of the horses here have survived abuse, but Angel has a radar for those in need of solace. 

Angel and Scout were the very first mustangs we found in the slaughter pipeline almost a year to the day after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) launched its disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). The program pays adopters $1000 per wild horse or burro, ostensibly to give them a good home. After a year, the adopters receive title. As compliance checks are deliberately minimal to non-existent, many adopters neglect the animals for 12 months. Once they receive their final installment of federal money, they sell them for their meat price to increase their profit. Then they turn around to adopt more and start all over again.

We rescued dozens more AIP victims to provide the evidence that the BLM said they’d require before believing this was happening. They left it to the public to supply this, rather than bothering to do it themselves. Years later, they were still in denial though they had all that evidence and more. A lawsuit we joined with the American Wild Horse Conservation (@freewildhorses) finally shut the program down.

(DENVER, Colo., March 3, 2025) – In a landmark victory for wild horse protection, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado has overturned the Bureau of Land Management's controversial Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), ruling that it violated multiple federal laws by failing to undergo required National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requirements. The court found it was “not hard to imagine” that slaughter of wild horses could be “fairly traceable” to BLM’s actions regarding the national AIP program, and noted the legally required need for vigorous public comment and agency review, which the BLM failed to conduct. 

No sooner had the court overturned the Adoption Incentive Program, the BLM shifted to Sale Authority to use middlemen to rid themselves of as many wild horses and burros as possible. Once again, we are collecting evidence. The fight goes on.

#skydogangel

American 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 two Senators to urge them to support these bills. 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

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2025 (H.R.1661 in the House and S.775 in the Senate). This bill would amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the “Farm Bill”. There are several important provisions for animals in that omnibus federal law, including the Cat and Dog Meat Trade Prohibition Act. It is currently illegal to slaughter, transport, possess, purchase, sell, or donate dogs and cats, or their parts, for human consumption. The SAFE Act would extend the ban to equines and 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. 4356) The bill would eliminate the use of helicopters in rounding up wild horses and burros, and require a study into alternative methods for humanely gathering the animals.

Ejiao Act of 2025 (H.R. 5544). 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.

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches and stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs.