June

Quiet tales like June’s have a special place in our hearts. June was 22 years old when she became our 5th rescue on Giving Tuesday 2024. She is a Kiger, one of the beautiful wild horses found in small pockets throughout the Oregon desert in the southeast corner of the state. We had two residents from this vaunted herd - Gunner and his son, Optimus Prime - who have passed away. We don’t see them often as they are very sought after. There hasn't been a round up there for many years, although one is scheduled for 2025.

We have a picture of June in the 2003 catalogue for Kiger Mustangs. Funnily enough, Janelle was at that adoption and considered taking her or her mother.

June spent the last 20 years with her adopters living wild on acreage. She’s remained unhandled and has been well taken care of. Sadly, her adopters now have health issues, which prevent them from caring for her any longer. They were desperate to find her a spot to live out her life and be safe. We are happy to give them the peace of knowing with certainty that she will always be loved, respected, protected, and cared for at the highest standard. She will never be starved or end up in an auction, kill pen or foreign slaughter house. We always try to take at least one owner relinquishment on Giving Tuesday and June is a worthy mare.

We released her together with Eden, Lady Grey, Pipsqueak, Jorja, and Tupelo Honey, who had been at the barn as patients for care or their comfort companions. You would never guess June hadn’t been there before as she kept right up with her new friends following Jorja to meet the rest of her family. We will keep a very good eye on her to make sure she does well out there. She gets two meals a day, but if she needs more to keep on weight during the winter, we will bring her back in. She’s happy, which makes us happy, and we know it means everything to her previous owners.

#skydogjune

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 Senators and urge them to support these bills:

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”, this omnibus federal law includes several important provisions for animals. Among them, the Cat and Dog Meat Trade Prohibition Act, which makes it illegal to slaughter, transport, possess, purchase, sell, or donate dogs and cats, or their parts, for human consumption. This SAFE Act would extend the prohibition to equines. Specifically, prohibiting a person from knowingly slaughtering an American equine for human consumption; or shipping, transporting, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donating an American equine to be slaughtered for human consumption. 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.

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.

Bills from the previous 118th Congress that we hope will be introduced again this 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.