Sunny & Birch

These two 3-year-old brothers are from Twin Peaks HMA in California, the same as Sinatra. They are inseparable and it took a little time to be able to tell them apart. Sunny has a longer tail, a lower whirl, and a tiny, pink snip on his nose. Birch has a wider, more pronounced blaze with more pink running into the black on his nose. Sunny = snip. Birch = blaze. 

They were rounded up with their families on the same day in October 2024. Ten months later, on the weekend of August 15th, we saw photos of them looking lost and scared at a BLM Sale Authority adoption event in Kellyville, Oklahoma. A couple of days later, they appeared on a kill pen site in Texas. How could this happen?  When the District Court closed the door on the Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), the BLM opened the flood gates with Sale Authority (SA) to get rid of as many mustangs and burros as possible. 

Sale Authority (SA) was created by the Burns Amendment, which was secretly added to an Omnibus spending bill in 2004 by Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana). It ripped the heart out of the original Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act, which was passed by Congress unanimously in 1971 with tremendous public support, and signed by President Nixon. The Burns Amendment allows the sale of “excess animals”, defined as 10+ years of age; or younger animals that failed to be adopted 3 times. They can be sold “without limitation“, and “any excess animals sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be free-roaming wild horses or burros for purposes of this Act.” 

The BLM cannot legally sell federally protected wild horses and burros for slaughter. They get around that by selling them cheap to middlemen, who do the dirty work for them. Sunny and Birch were sold SA for $25 each. Ownership immediately transferred to the buyers, so federal laws no longer protected them. Until we get the SAFE Act passed, there is nothing to stop private owners from selling their animals to be shipped across US borders to be slaughtered. They drove them straight to a feedlot - along with other young mustangs, including yearlings - and made a profit flipping them for their meat price. We worked with others to get all these  mustangs safe and raised funds to bring Sunny & Birch to Skydog. 

Their safety was secured, but a disaster looms. Felix (2), Elliot (4), Sunny (3), Birch (3), Lola (1), Emmy (3), were just the beginning of the flood of very young SA mustangs and burros being sent to kill pens at the same time that BLM holding facilities are closing due to budget cuts. They are chipping away at these programs by not renewing contracts and not funding training programs. All the animals under BLM authority are in perilous danger - and the roundups just keep on coming to pour more mustangs and burros into a system that leads to slaughter.

#skydogsunny  #skydogbirch

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.