Mabel

Mabel was 23 years old when we saved her on Giving Tuesday 2024. She was unhandled, so we didn't know when she was rounded up or whether she's just been left in a field somewhere. The kill pen contacted us about her before she was even posted as she needed immediate veterinary attention. They asked if we could help. Of course we couldn't say no to that and had her picked up. Mabel's feet were in horrible condition and she had a nasty abscess. Our Giving Tuesday donors made it clear they wanted her to come to Skydog Malibu to winter on warm sand and begin to heal.

She traveled to Malibu with a mini-pony, Snowball, and the two became fast friends. They like to run together on the rugged terrain of Malibu, which is the best thing for her feet. It’s nature’s way of keeping equine hooves in good shape. The first time we released her onto the hills, she stopped at the top, tucked herself into sage brush, and scanned the distance, perhaps remembering how it felt to be wild and free.

She took a baby zonkey, Zebedee, under her maternal wing. His mom was a donkey, his father was a zebra, so Mabel must have reminded him of the mother he loved before they pulled him off her and sold him at auction when he was just weeks old. When Gary Dourdan came to the ranch to play music for the animals, Zebedee leaned into Mabel to make sure it was OK. As they listened to him sing and play, they moved in closer to soak up the beautiful sounds and energy.

It took a lot of patience and a whole year to bring Mabel’s painful abscesses to an end. We keep this in mind when we take in other donkeys with terrible feet, like Millie and Eloise. If we can keep them comfortable, we make the commitment to doing everything we can to help them heal. As veterinarian Dr. Findlay said, “Donkeys do have their size and amazing healing abilities in their favor.”

After Mrs. Tiggywinkle last year, Mabel is the second donkey we had saved on a Giving Tuesday. Kill buyers search for donkeys and burros to serve the ejiao market. We started the @skydogdonkeys account on Instagram to bring attention to these sensitive, intelligent beings and the terrible threat that demand for ejiao poses to their populations globally.

At her age with her feet, Mabel is exactly the donkey we needed to help and l'm very glad the kill pen reached out to us. We will give her the life she deserves so she never ends up in an auction or kill pen ever again.

We now have over 50 donkeys and hybrids plus a zebra to take care of, as well as close to 300 mustangs. It's a lot of work, but we wouldn't have it any other way. 

#skydogmabel

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 canned hunt ranches in Texas & Oklahoma, bringing an end to the BLM using Sale Authority to funnel wild equines into the slaughter pipeline, and stopping production of Premarin & other drugs made from pregnant mare urine.