Lucy

Lucy is one of the Peanuts Gang, a group of donkeys, whom we rescued together and named after characters from the Charlie Brown cartoon. They had been treated so terribly that not all of them lived long enough to see Skydog - poor, old Viola passed on the way to quarantine This broke our hearts and happens all too often with donkeys exposed to the stress and filth of holding facilities and killpens. Their hooves were in awful condition, it looked like someone had used a saw to trim them.

On top of all this - and in addition to being pregnant - Lucy had abscesses in her feet. She is strong like the character from the comic strip, but she doesn’t have a mean, arrogant, or domineering bone in her body. She is the essence of grace under pressure and patience.

We knew she was pregnant, but we didn’t know how far along she was - and burros carry longer than horses. It seemed to us like it was taking forever for the foal to arrive, so we can only imagine how Lucy was feeling as her belly swelled, but she showed nothing but forbearance.

We protected her in the nursery, where we keep pregnant equines and their babies so we can watch and help them, if necessary. After four long months, in the quiet of the night, Lucy delivered the most beautiful, fluffy, white baby, Marcie Marshmallow. This little girl has given us and our followers nothing but joy and laughter from the moment we discovered her nursing at her mother’s side.

Lucy is an excellent, calm mother and it’s been our pleasure to give her and her baby everything they’ve needed to thrive. They were introduced to a pen with some of Lucy’s Peanuts friends, including Sally Brown’s baby, Woodstock. Marcie took off running with her mother protectively behind her to prevent the herd from overwhelming her foal, but the little one could pretty much run circles around all of them. Marcie quickly became the undisputed princess of the donkey pen, if not the whole sanctuary. Lucy remains quiet, peaceful, and mostly keeps to herself, resting on her laurels for having safely delivered her most beautiful gift to the world.

#skydoglucy

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.