Huck and Puck

Like too many wild burros, Huck and Puck were victims of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) severely flawed Adoption Incentive Program (AIP).

In the summer of 2019, at three and four years old, Huck and Puck were rounded up from the Seven Troughs Herd Management Area in Nevada and shipped to a nearby BLM holding corral. That October, a cattle rancher from Oklahoma adopted them. After receiving the title and a $1,000 check for each of them one year later, he flipped the pair at a notorious kill pen in Stroud, Oklahoma in January 2021 where he received another $400-$600 for each of them - the going slaughter price for donkeys.

Fortunately, working in partnership with AWHC, in February 2021, Evanescent Mustang Rescue and Sanctuary pulled Huck and Puck, along with a trailer load of other AIP burros, from Stroud and placed them with one of its foster homes in Wyoming.

While Huck and Puck have come to symbolize the BLM's broken promise to protect and preserve America's iconic wild horses and burros, their story has a happy ending. Adopted by AWHC staff member Mary Koncel and her husband Dick Wagner, “the burro boys” found their forever home in Western Massachusetts last year.

To say that Huck and Puck are resilient would be an understatement. Once shy and apprehensive, they're now trusting and affectionate, always wanting a hug or a carrot or a scratch on the back. And, of course, Mary and Dick can't imagine life without them and their wonderful braying!