joy

Giving Tuesday 2025

The adopters of this pretty Appaloosa mare brought her to Skydog for help handling her in our chute as she's extremely wild. They asked if we could have our vet give her a pregnancy check as they’d been told she was bred. When she proved not to be, Janelle realized they were going to put her to sleep. She was almost completely blind and they were not set up for handling a wild, blind horse. Janelle texted me and asked if we could add her as one of our saves near the end of Giving Tuesday 2025.

It really was special to see the donations come in for Joy as one of the themes of 2025 unexpectedly became the Year of Vision-Impaired Mustangs. Rosa needed surgery to remove her eyes and Marjorie Morningstar lost one. I feel it's important to constantly show the BLM - who shoot captured horses for real, suspected, or non-existent blindness - that this does not reduce their quality of life. Mustangs with poor vision survive decades in the wild with the guidance of their herds. It should never be a death sentence.

We’ll be able to care for Joy with the help of our hydraulic chute, which keeps her and everyone around her safe while she’s being treated. In the season when carolers sing Joy to The World, our donors have joined in a chorus of Bring Joy to Skydog.

#skydogjoy

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.