Tucker

Giving Tuesday 2025

The 4th save on Giving Tuesday 2025 is a two-year-old mustang, Tucker. This year, we have saved more babies than usual. We are determined to raise awareness about the BLM selling off babies cheap as Sale Authority (SA) so they can travel straight from BLM adoption events to kill pens. No three strikes, it is happening at the very first adoption event. The buyers leave with a bill of sale and are free to flip the animals for their meat price to make a profit. The Mustangs lose all rights as federally protected animals.

We took four youngsters a couple of months ago. Two of those, Lola and Emmy, are soon moving onto Spirit Wings Ranch in California, who are now fundraising for their care. We also continue to raise awareness for Mustangs coming out of Telaquah, Oklahoma, where a family has adopted hundreds of Mustangs - first through the AIP, and now SA -  and sends them to slaughter.

Tucker is another young horse, who ended up in a kill pen as a baby. With facial injuries and a wounded, swollen hock on his back leg, we could see he needed immediate veterinary care. He’d been on our radar screen for a while. We were tracking him to make sure he was OK. When we saw a place that we know does not take care of its horses was fundraising for him, we intervened.

In the last few years, fraud rescues have been popping up out of nowhere. Many horses have been condemned to places, where the owners pocket the donations, while starving and neglecting the animals - or selling them back into the slaughter pipeline. We are not going to name them, but we were so happy to be able to take Tucker before he disappeared or died in one of these dismal facilities. Safe/Sold should mean just that: The animals were bought and will be safe for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, it often means they are headed for a destination that extends and exacerbates their suffering and misery. At Skydog, being saved means being saved forever and that’s what’s going to happen to Tucker.

He received immediate veterinary care for his injured leg and facial wounds. We wasted no time getting him out of the barn to start making friends. He was introduced to Tesoro and Hubbell, who seemed delighted to have a youngster to mentor. There was a minimum of squeal and stomp before they were running round together.  After that, we turned these three out with Wild Boy’s band, where Tucker has young Elliot and Felix for playmates. It was exciting for everyone to meet, but calm and respectful with Tesoro and Hubbell ensuring the boys understood that Tucker is young and protected. Wild Boy, Wilson, Ford, and Hyas all ran up to say hello. Tesoro has status in this herd and made sure both Tucker and Hubbell were fine.

The emotional intelligence and kindness of these mustangs was on full display. I whole heartedly believe that they are the highest of spiritual beings. They are here to remind us of our true essence and humanity to guide us home to kindness and compassion. Horses exist in total surrender to the present moment and are the most beautiful path to reconnection with nature and life itself. Watching them meet and go through the dance of connection and presence was spectacular and such a privilege to witness. In the midst of it all, a little, brown, kill-pen mustang, who was treated so badly by humans in his short life, was greeted with love and generosity by older, wiser horses, who respected his journey and homecoming. 

#skydogtucker

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.