Ava & Constance

Two mustang mares in a kill pen that need our help. Ava is a youngster in the spring of her life. Constance is in the winter of hers. Both have been betrayed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the corrupt federal bureau mandated to protect wild horses, and the middlemen who profit from doing their dirty work.

Ava is just two years old. She’s one of many young mustangs being funneled into the slaughter pipeline as fast as the BLM can sell them as Sale Authority. We found her standing in a kill pen with a massive chest full of fluid, most likely from a hard kick. She needed immediate medical attention and the local vet drained lots of blood, puss, and wad from her injury. Ava has obviously had some training. Perhaps she was dumped to avoid a large vet bill, but no horse deserves this and we wanted to help her out of there immediately.

Constance is a petite, horribly thin, bay mustang. Skin and bones, it breaks the heart to think of the neglect that caused this. She was born in 1999 - and you know how important it is to me to help seniors. They have almost no chance of being adopted and the environment of a kill pen is terrifying and confusing at any age. She needs good food, care, and love and we can’t wait to give that to her as soon as the local vet has assisted her.

We always try to give our rescues travel companions for emotional support on the road. When they are ready to go, Ava and Constance will join the old doneky, Millie, on the haul to their happy new lives. They’ll realize that humans can be kind with our wonderful hauler, Steve Egner. He has an exceptionally calming manner with his precious cargo - and he considers them ALL precious cargo.

The kill pens are alarmingly full of mustangs and burros right now as the BLM is using Sale Authority to get rid of as many as possible. You can read about this and what we can do about it at Stop the BLM’s New Sale Authority Policy. It has replaced the Adoption Incentive Program for funneling wild horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline and it must be stopped NOW.

#skydogava   #skydogconstance

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.

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.

A bill from the previous 118th Congress that we hope will be introduced again this session:

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.