ladybug

There were supposed to be just two mustang mares at the Kansas kill pen. Two 6-year-old, sweet-looking, wild mares who stood no chance of being adopted or rescued. A sorrel mare and her grey friend needed help just as Jamie Baldanza and I were preparing to make a  short film about the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act. It was 2021 and thousands of American equines were being shipped to slaughter houses in Canada and Mexico. We wanted to do everything we could to educate people about shutting down the slaughter pipeline in the USA. We decided to document the story of Grey Goose and Ladybug and went to pick them up ourselves. Suddenly we got a message about a third mare, who had come in with these two, but was left behind. That was Twiglet and we turned around to go right back and get her. So we set out to save two, but came home with three, which actually turned out to be four: Ladybug was pregnant!

All three mares were adopted out in 2019, the first year of the Bureau of Land Management’s disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). At the end of their twelve months with the adopter, who contracted to give them a “good home”, their bodies were thin, hooves long, and hair was matted with clumps of winter coats hanging off their bodies. From the time they were rounded up, they spent their days in dirty, crowded spaces, hauled from one bad place to a worse one.  No one took care of them. Their adopter neglected them while waiting out the year to collect $1000 for each mare in federal incentive money before selling them for their meat price. As was the case with Ladybug, owners often breed mares in order to make more money off their heavier weight. While touting the AIP as a success story in finding good homes for captured wild horses and burros, the BLM ignores the horrible reality. By law, the they cannot send federally-protected animals to slaughter directly. The AIP was created to get around that problem by paying middlemen to take the animals off their hands and dispose of them however they see fit.

When Ladybug and her friends arrived at Skydog, they were shut down and defeated. They were hungry and buried their heads in a pile of good orchard grass. It was a beautiful thing to watch them come back to life and happiness with gleaming coats, bright eyes, and acceptance of humans who treat them with kindness. The birth of Firefly, an adorable little mule, was a delightful surprise. His life is carefree as he cannot begin to imagine the terrible things that happened to his mother. The world would be less without his innocent sweetness and playful zest for life. It is terrifying how close it came to never happening.

Ladybug is among the lucky ones whose health and freedom were restored. Deeply bonded, she and Firefly remain together with Grey Goose and Twiglet in the same wild herd today. She may not have a clue that she’s a movie star with Daryl Hannah (@dhlovelife) narrating her story in a film, but she has touched many hearts. She is a mustang ambassador, whose loss, survival, and renewal inspires action to permanently ban the slaughter of American equines, wild and domesticated.

#skydogladybug #skydoggreygoose#skydogtwiglet

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 Senators and urge them to support these bills:

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3475 in the House / S.2307 in the Senate). This bill will 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. 3656) This bill will prohibit the use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the management of wild mustangs and burros on public lands, and require a report on humane alternatives to current management practices.

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.

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

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches, stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs, and defund the Adoption Incentive Program.