Ziggy Stardust

I was looking for a special needs horse or donkey to travel with Chester, who was fragile and required a long, slow, steady haul with the best care on board. I was sent a post of this six-week-old baby at a livestock auction in Texas and thought, “He needs to be off the kill lot before he gets sick”.  I would have taken any orphaned baby, but this one happened to have stripes.

It wasn't in my life plans to rescue a zebra, but I knew at some point we would have to. There are just too many landing in auctions and pens as the canned hunt industry grows. There are ranches in Texas and Oklahoma, where people pay big money to shoot trapped zebras. It’s not a sport in any sense of the word as the animals have no chance of escape. The babies are taken from their mothers at days old to gentle them and sell them as "pets".  Zebras are not novelty gifts or zoo exhibits. They are too wild to be domesticated. It’s appalling that African native species end up in the American slaughter pipeline.

Ziggy Stardust was just six weeks old when we found him alone in a kill pen. He was given bottles and buckets of milk in quarantine, but he was frightened and hysterical without his mother. We rescued a baby mini mule, Bon Bon, to travel with Ziggy and calm him down.

Zebras are equines, but not suited for domestication. They are wild animals with their own needs and health issues. Their care is specialized and very expensive, which I don’t ask of our donors. Ziggy’s costs are covered with my personal funds, but he is very much a part of the sanctuary.

As an orphan, we gave him all the care he needed to thrive. He and Bon Bon loved to run the Malibu hills together. My husband generously paid for a second baby zebra, Zephyr, so that Ziggy would have someone of his own kind. When he arrived, they called to each other, making a sound that is charming and very different from any other equine. We moved them up to Oregon, where they were gelded and came through the procedure beautifully.

Tragically, the little guys were exposed to every disease possible in the pens, which is where they most likely contracted the herpes virus. It subsequently killed Zephyr, but Ziggy survived and no other animals got sick at the ranch. While in the hospital, Ziggy hurt himself rubbing his halter. He came out with some deep abrasions under his chin and on the side of his face. He hated having his wounds dressed but we got him through it and he is doing beautifully today.

We brought Ziggy back down to Malibu, where he prefers the California sunshine. We plan to introduce him to the baby zonkey, Zebedee, when he’s a little bigger and anticipate that they will be great playmates.

#skydogziggy  #skydogzephyr

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.

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.

A bill from the previous 118th Congress that we hope will be introduced again this session:

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.