Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald - 2023: My Favorite Ranch with Clare Staples

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

On this week's episode, we learn about what goes into running a horse and burro rescue. Rancher Clare Staples talks about her passion for saving wild horses, the obstacles these creatures face, and how she's able to keep track of dozens of horses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now, for years, we have humbly celebrated Women's History Month at QLS with a full month of fantastic female guests. This year, we say with pride that we have four multi-talented, award-winning ladies who kicked down barriers. I'm talking Brittany Howard, Corinne Bailey Ray, and the incredible choreographer Fatima Robinson. And as well as Lettucey. choreographer Fatima Robinson, and as well as Lettucey. Listen to QLS on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. USC was leading a secret double life. Is she breathing right now? Yes, she's absolutely breathing. I'm a doctor, actually. A story about money, power, and corruption. When people fall in line, they fall in line.

Looking back, I realized, oh, everyone knew. I'm Paul Pringle, an investigative reporter for the LA Times. Listen to Fallen Angels, a story of California corruption, starting March 28th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show, ears edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews, and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind.

Listen to The Daily Show, ears edition, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, guys. Hi. There he is. Donald, you'll be very happy to know that I don't have my sound effects machine, so any sound effects drops that the audience likes,

I will be doing live. This is the best day ever. Oh my God. What just happened, people? Everyone, today is the best day ever. Because I don't have the sound effects machine? Yes. None of that bullshit.

None of that Zach, I love you shit. Zach, I love you. Listen, I'm going to do them live. I just want the audience to know that when they hear them they don't sound as good as you. What you trying to get into a day or soon? What you trying to do? That's the only one that you can do that's actually

going to sound authentic. Everyone else. No, that doesn't sound like me. You don't sound like me. Try Wu-Tang forever. Try Wu-Tang forever. Wu-Tang forever. Wu-Tang forever. No, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Wu-Tang Forever.

No, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. How are you? I miss you. I'm good. How are you? I miss you too. This has been a crazy, crazy, crazy summer. Holy shit.

Yes, it's a very bizarre time in our town because nobody can work. Yeah, and it's hot as balls outside yeah yes it is nobody can work and it's hot as balls outside this is what i imagine hell is like hot and workless hot and workless well that just shows that you love your work too because a lot of people would imagine hell would be hot and work full. You know what I mean? Well, not if you love what you do. Yeah, if you love what you do.

I'm one of the very few people in the world that gets to do what he's always wanted to do. Yes, that's probably true, Donald. You're one of an elite group of people that actually gets to do what they love to do. Joel and Daniel too. I mean, we don't know how they feel about this job. Yeah, Daniel. I love my job. Okay, there we go.

No, but Donald's right. Daniel might be like, I will kill them one day. No. If I hear what you're trying to get into a day or two, one more fucking time, I'm going to blow. I have to listen to their voices even after the show is over. Yeah, because Daniel has to edit the show. So for all we know, he's up late at night being like,

oh, soon, soon. Fucking microphone. Donald, if you don't get your mic right. Yes. If he reads that ad wrong one more fucking time, I'll blow. Yeah, Daniel wants to be in Ibiza being like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. You got to show me love.

Exactly. Daniel, is that your dream to be a well-paid DJ in Ibiza on drugs? It was for a little bit. It was for a little bit. It was for a little bit. I'm not going to lie, though. I do love this job. And I love having a real home life. Being gone every weekend and not having friends to hang out with during the week is tough.

Yeah, but you make more money DJing, man. That's for damn sure. Hell no. Hell no. I wish. Oh, my gosh. No, but he make more money DJing, man. That's for damn sure. Hell no. I wish. Oh, my gosh. No, but he's not talking to me. I wish. Daniel never reached, and he could, of course, if he tried.

We don't know. But he never reached the private jet DJ status, I assume, Daniel. Not quite, no. It was a long road, and there are many choices I may have changed along the way. However, I'm very proud of that time in my life, and I'm happy where I am now, so no regrets. You know, I met and I hung out with the DJ Zedd. Do you know him? Oh, Anton.

I do know Anton. Anton is paid. Yes, he's extremely paid. You think so? If I made a song like Clarity, then yes, I would not be here right now. You are a piece of me. Oh, my gosh. He's so talented.

That's the only deal. Is he super talented? I. Oh my gosh. He's so talented. That's the, I mean, that's all we need. Is he super talented? I don't listen to that music. So is he super good? He must be because he's super good. If I'm alive. That song rules. He is super talented.

He's an amazing musician. Like, he's a classically trained pianist. Wait a second. Didn't Wichma Callit write that song, though? He didn't write that song. Didn't Hilary duff's husband wrote that song the the lyrics or the music the lyrics yeah yeah for sure yeah it is it is his song i can't remember the name of the singer but she's also very talented but i mean he wrote the music

part of it so that's the part that i give him those most credit for he also works with i mean a bunch of talented writers he's brought up so many people i got nothing but respect for that oh that's nice to hear. He's a very nice guy. I just met him a few times. And he's super nice. I also happened to see his house. So I was like, damn.

Anton. Man is crushing it. Does he have a movie theater? He just had one of those, like, I'm a rich DJ, holy shithouses. Yeah. Like, did he have a movie theater? He just had one of those, like, I'm a rich DJ, holy shithouses. Yeah. Like, did he have a tennis court? I didn't, like, survey the grounds, Donald. I was just there for a cocktail party, and it was like a wow house.

And I was like, wow, this is one of those. I don't know his music. He had fake grass or real grass. Is that how you determine wealth? I'm just saying, some people determine wealth whether they have a swing in the cement. That's Casey. You got to tell that story now. You can't leave the audience curious about that story.

My wife told us that when she was growing up... Are you going to tell this right or do I need to take over? I'm going to fucking tell it wrong. You need to take over, dude. I need to take over Donald's wife's story just because Donald's too high to remember it. No, it's so long ago. She was talking about how in Waco, Texas, and this was many years ago.

Well, Marlin, Texas. Marlin, Texas, that her grandmother had a really nice house for very little money. And this is Casey said this without any trying to joke at all. She was like, y'all, she got this house for $30,000. And this house was nice like y'all she got this house for thirty thousand dollars and this house was nice y'all i mean it had a swing set in the cement hell yeah sweet she wasn't trying to be funny she was like that was one of the nice features of the house was that the swing set was embedded in the cement not into the dirt it wasn't one of those ones where when you swing hard,

it comes up. No, no, no, no. There's no chance of the swing coming up. This fucker was in the cement. It was locked up in that motherfucker. But dude,

Casey wasn't joking. If the tornado came, you're not going off to Oz on the swing set. Donald, do you remember Casey wasn't joking. She wasn't trying to be funny. She was like being earnest.

She was like, y'all, it was nice. Like the swing set was in the cement. Yeah. She was she was like y'all it was nice like yeah swing set was in the cement yeah she was bragging y'all oh no it was a nice house should we talk about going to t swift because we had a great mandate listen that t swift cody was hating yeah well cody cody cody's cody's not a fan. We don't need to listen to Cody.

Cody's all in on Beyonce and Britney. Well, we should listen to Cody because he gets you into shape and everything like that. No, but I mean, he's not a T-Swift fan, and Donald and I are, and we had a really nice date. We had a great night. I mean, hanging out with the people that we hung out made it even more special, though, too. Like getting to see Elizabeth Banks again. Yeah, right.

Getting to see Brie and Sarah. Sarah Paulson. It was quite the crew. Oh, my gosh. Wait a minute. I have like three friends who've met Lupita, and they said she literally stole their breath. She's the most beautiful woman. Yeah, she's outrageous.

She's so beautiful. She's outrageous. Oh my God. I'm so jealous. Donald and I were like, you know, I know Sarah Paulson. We know Elizabeth Banks. You know, I've met Brie Larson. We were in the Casamigos.

Shout out to Casamigos for letting us watch in their awesome box. Big ups. But anyway, Donald and I were like, you know, we know these, these, those gals. And then we saw, and Amy Adams was there and I know her. And then,

but then Donald and I both saw Lupina Nyong and we both just stopped in our tracks and we're like, our jaws dropped. She's so pretty. Dude,

come on. And they're all beautiful. I just meant we hadn't met her before in our star, in our star sightings. We were surrounded by nothing but beautiful women that night. Other than Darren Criss. And other than Darren Criss, we were the by nothing but beautiful women that night.

And other than Darren Criss, we were the only guys there. That's funny. And freaking like Ashley Tisdale came up in there. We had a crew. And there was that famous TikTok girl's sister. I don't know TikTok dancers. Oh, man.

The one that was on Dancing with the Stars. There was a reality show about her family. The D'Amelio? Yeah, D'Amelio's the older sister. Donald and I may have been the only two straight men not accompanying a child there in the all of SoFi Stadium. That is how I felt as well. Oh, did you go?

I did. It was great, wasn't it? Dude, it was so incredible just the fact that she can go for three and a half hours like that is mind-blowing to me i was just standing there dancing and singing sure but like she is performing singing bantering for three and a half hours that conditioning is unparalleled she is such an impressive performer man she fucked up traffic in hollywood man that's all I'm going to say. How about that? Look, it was cool the first night.

I was like, oh, man, Taylor's in town. This is dope. Zach's taking me. And we had a great time. I sang. I did all of that stuff. But for the next six days, traffic in Los Angeles was shit. And it was all because of Taylor Swift.

Donald and I were loving the show, but I looked at him, because we were starting to time out. We knew how long the show was, and I was like, I want you to look at all these people, 70,000 people. I'm like, all these people are going to try and leave at the same time. Right. So, Donald, we are going to miss some final Taylor tracks. Right.

We missed the encore. We missed all of that shit. We was like, that's a wrap. We love Taylor, but we don't love two hours of traffic, Taylor. No, no, no, no. I can't sit in the parking lot for two hours. No, I would have lost my mind. I would have lost my mind.

No way. I saw the line for Uber, and I was like, there's no way. It could not be caught dead in that Uber line of 10,000 other people. These big stars like Lupita and Sarah Paulson, they were disappearing for like an hour. And you're like, where'd they go? And they would come back. They had gotten on the merch line.

They had been on the line for merch. Yeah. Came back with all the merch. So you got to get their way. And did not share it with us. And I was like, Donald, you need to go. The cool thing to do would be for you to come home with one of those sweatshirts for Casey. And he's like, oh, hell no.

Only way I'm getting one of them things with Casey is if Lupita's like, would you like a sweatshirt? Right. You were hoping that Lupita was going to be like that. That's what I was hoping. I even asked Br Casey is if Lupita's like, would you like a sweatshirt? Right. You were hoping that Lupita was going to be like. That's what I was hoping. I even asked Brie Larson. I was like, Brie, did you get anything for me? You were hoping that Lupita Nyong'o was going to be like, Donald, I Googled your wife's sizes, and here's a hoodie. We're totally name dropping.

That's how good this freaking party was that we went to. It wasn't just a concert. It was a party like we were hanging out yeah with some really awesome people it was cool who really liked taylor swift that was the other thing it was amazing that that all of these people really really we weren't there just because it was the casamigo suite like that's the perk that was one of the perks everybody who was there was a genuine tay Taylor Swift fan and knew all the lyrics. Yeah, we didn't know.

Dalton and I knew a fraction of the songs because I think I, well, I really, I like Taylor a lot, but my favorite album is Folklore because she made an album with The Nationals. It was like, wow, that's the most Taylor kind of music that can be. I love a lot of the pop hits, don't get me wrong. But for me, that's the album that I responded to most. So there were so many songs that were played that I didn't even know.

Wow. Not me. That shit was... There's maybe like three songs, four songs, or the whole night that I was like, oh, I don't know this one. I didn't know the era when she came out in the princess dress, that kind of music. oh, I don't know this one. I didn't know the era when she came out in the princess dress, that kind of music. Oh, for Speak Now?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that stuff. What songs are on Speak Now? Sing them, Daniel. You don't act like you don't. That is an album I'm honestly least familiar with. I believe that is her third album. Yeah, the country stuff and the princess stuff, I didn't know.

Last Kiss, Haunted, Sparks Fly. Oh, that's with Dear John, Mean. That's Mean. Oh, yeah, I don't know that shit. Yeah, but we like 1989, and we like... What's the reputation? I knew all of that shit. What's the one where she has the hat over her face?

That was Red. Yeah, I know that shit. I know all of that the dancers were incredible the let's keep it 100 all right let's be honest taylor ain't no dancer let's be 100 about it all she's a great performer don't kill me i'm telling you right now none of these all y'all be cracking me up with the these motherfuckers can dance their ass off and then not pay attention to the fact that there's a Beyonce out there. Come on, man. Come on, buddy. There's a, come on, buddy.

Let's keep it 100. Taylor is a great performer and she has a great strut that she does. I'm going to keep it 100 with y'all. That strut is powerful. But when it comes to dancing, there's not a lot at the show. There was not a lot of dance at the show. He's got a thousand snake emojis in his Instagram comments right now. I know.

First of all, guys, it's Donald underscore Azong. Don't do it. Don't do it. And it's an underscore and seven F because he was so high, he typed it wrong. No, I was drunk that night. Oh, drunk. I was talking about, not Taylor,

and I'm not comparing it to Beyonce's. Or Lady Gaga. Anyway, I thought the dancers that were hired were very good. And the show is just so pretty. The stage production and the lighting and it was like, I described it to someone as like a halftime show that went for three and a half hours.

Yes, exactly. You know what the best part of it was? Is when the stage is empty and it's just her by herself on the stage. And you see how big the stage is and how she's commanding that big of a stage. It also helps that you have a giant freaking jumbotron up above. But when you look down and you see just her in this big giant T of a stage,

holy cow. It's like, wow, you're by yourself out there and you're doing it right now. I know. And 70,000 people are singing your lyrics back to you. What a feeling. Shit's crazy. I'm going to go see Cold your lyrics back to you. What a feeling. Shit's crazy. I'm going to go see Coldplay at the Rose Bowl on September 30th. That'll be fun.

Because you know that's my jam. They're so fun live. They got any new music? I'm sure they do. I'm going to see all my favorites. I just got to go back. One last thing. She opened the motherfucker up with freaking uh

the song that's popping right now the summer shit uh it's the summer jam that should make you want to do the snake like you freaking back in the 80s like straight up dude straight up i also want to give a shout out also want to give a shout out. I want to give a shout out to my very good friend, one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. His name is Preston Boyd, and he is currently playing Javert in the tour of Les Miserables, which is currently in Los Angeles. And if you're listening to this and you're going to be in Los Angeles in the next few weeks, I'm telling you, go see it.

He just is extraordinary. I hope you're going to go, Los Angeles in the next few weeks. I'm telling you, go see it. He just is extraordinary. I hope you're going to go, Donald. I really want to. You should bring Wilder. She'll love it. It's so well done. It's Les Mis. I don't know.

I know it's singing throughout the whole thing, so I'm hoping that'll be intriguing to her. But you can give her the basics of the story. You could talk her through it, explain it to her. Yeah you can give her the basics of the story. You could talk her through, explain it to her. Yeah, that'll be interesting. Anyway, it's a great production, and I'm so proud of my friend because he's really great in it. So I wanted to say, if you're in LA in the next couple weeks, go see it at the Pantages,

which is such a beautiful theater. I can't remember the last time I was at the Pantages. And also, before we move on, shout out to Rachel Zalas, man. Yo, thanks for hooking up the Casamigos suite. That was really awesome. So shout out to her, man. We've known her for a really long time, and she's always been really nice to us. So shout out.

Yes, and Rachel, I believe, is the head of publicity for Casamigos. So she was the reason we – not that George Clooney doesn't love Donald and I places. I mean, I'm sure he listens to the podcast. Well, I know that George loves the podcast, but I don't know that George – I don't think George was in charge of the guest list for the suite. But I'm sure that's part of the reason. I don't know, man. In our minds, Donald, in our minds, she went to George and said –

He was like, listen, Swiftie's in town, and I think Donald and Zach, after listening to the podcast, would love to be. Yes. In our mind, that's how it happened. That George Clooney listens to the podcast. And he was like, Rachel, come in my office, please. I know we have limited room in the suite. And Lupita's already contacted me.

But are there two seats for Zach and Donald? And she's like, aren't they straight? Yeah, they are. Are they going to bring children? No, no. They're going to go on a date together. Amazing. That's exactly what happened. He was like, I need the suite for them.

I need this to be a perfect night. He had to call Lupita and say, sorry, you only get a plus one. Right. Because originally she had the whole thing locked down. Lupita had like plus five and George had to call Lupita and say, sorry, you only get a plus one. Right. Because originally she had the whole thing locked down. Lupita had like plus five and George had to call her and calm that shit down. I'm sorry, Amy Adams. No children alone. All right.

So Donald's going to count us in before he does. I want to say, you know, we're not allowed to talk about scrubs, as you guys know. So Donald and I are looking for cool opportunities to invite really interesting people on the show. Sometimes they'll be famous people, actors or creative types or fame for other reasons, like Cody was interesting to us. was interesting to us. And I've been fortunate enough to meet through Krista Miller, who has a very good friend named Claire Staples, who when I met Claire and heard her story and went to her ranch in Malibu, I was just blown away by what she has dedicated her life to. And I said to Donald and Joelle and Daniel, I really want to have this woman on because I've just become obsessed with this woman's Instagram account. She has dedicated her life to rescuing wild horses.

And she will explain to us the whole situation, why the Bureau of Land Management rounds up these horses, what they do to them, and how she has dedicated her entire life and formed this charity that rehabilitates and rescues these beautiful animals. And I've just been so moved by it. I've been obsessively watching her videos. She has an Instagram account, which we'll send you to. I turned my mom onto it. And literally right before I got on the podcast, my mom was like saying, I can't stop watching

these videos. I'm like crying because they're so beautiful you just go down a rabbit hole you know what i mean you think like you know you don't you don't think about stuff like that and then all of a sudden you you it's you because you uh recommended it and i watched it it was like wait a second well let me go down more of this like you don't realize the feelings that these animals have and the long lasting bonds and friendship that they create. And it's really interesting.

Yeah, and she's going to tell us all about it. I just want to give the Instagram a shout out right off the bat because if you love animals, this is just the most beautiful Instagram account. You see how she rehabilitates these horses and you follow their stories. And people are so invested in their stories because Claire is such a good storyteller. The account handle on Instagram is Sky Dog Sanctuary. And join the four of us in following them and you will just fall in love. And by the way, she'll go on to tell you all about

it, but the charity covers that she raises money for these animals. It's also donkeys as well and other equine, zebras, and they're rescued from circuses and anything. She'll tell us all about it. But I wanted you to know that a lot of it is her money. They're a wealthy couple. And the charity helps raise money for food and vet bills, et cetera. But she and her husband are the ones who bought this 9,000-acre ranch in Bend, Oregon and are spending their own money to rescue these animals. So it's just really, really inspiring. Donald, count us in. Five, six,. Donald count. It's five, six,

seven, eight stories about show. We made about a bunch of docs and nurses. And again, I said, he's got stories. Now you all should know. So gather around to hear our gather around to hear our

rewatch show with Zach and Donald. All right, Daniel, please let in Claire Staples. Here she comes. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Claire Staples! There she is. There she is. There she is. Hi, Claire. Hello.

Can you hear me? We can. Sound great. How are you? Good to see you. Welcome to the program, Claire Staples. I am so excited that you made this happen, that you're here with us. It's kind of a dream come true moment for me to be on your podcast, to be speaking to you.

We are very happy to make your dreams come true. That's what we do here on. That is how we do it. First. I want you to meet the legendary Donald phase on Donald. And that's a Joel and Daniel are our partners in this endeavor. Hey guys. I just want to tell the audience.

I had the, the distance, incredible experience. Kristen Miller said to me, I want to take you to my friend's ranch in Malibu. She rescues wild horses. And I said, well, I love animals. That sounds really interesting. And I went and I saw this ranch, which is relatively small to what Claire has going on in Bend, Oregon, which is 9,000 acres. And Claire started to tell me the story of why and what's going on with the Bureau of Land Management and wild horses. And I was just blown away. And the more she talked and she was so captivating, I then followed her on Instagram. And Claire, I was just telling the audience that my mom literally, right before I got on this podcast, texted me, I can't stop watching Claire's videos.

They're so moving. She's like, I'm crying watching these videos. So you've already got my mom and I hooked. Will you please just start at the very beginning? Because I imagine most people, like myself, know nothing about what's going on. First and foremost, why is the Bureau of Land Management rounding up these horses and how do they do it? Okay, but before we start-

Sorry, go ahead, Donald. I'm sorry. I had no idea that this was happening. I thought horses were already bred in captivity. I didn't know that there were still wild horses out there. Okay. So just to know just the history of it all, this land was once filled with horses like zebra in Africa, you know what I mean? Herds and herds of horses. No, and it's absolutely true. There used to be like between two to five million wild horses all across the western states. And it is true when when white men came from the east across to the west on the railroads that were now built.

belt actually they would give shotguns to the passengers riding because as they went along they would shoot buffalo or the wild horses just for entertainment you know because they were bored on this cross-country trip that and then i don't know if you guys know the film the misfits with james dean and marilyn monroe it's an extraordinary film but basically basically James Dean plays a Mustang back in probably the 50s or 60s. And these cowboys used to go out and round up hundreds of wild horses and use them for chicken feed and pet food. And over that time, the numbers diminished and diminished. And eventually it got down to about 27,000 wild horses in the Western States, which from the millions there were was practically extinct. Yep.

And this amazing woman in Nevada happened, she was working as a secretary in Reno and followed a slaughter truck that had blood pouring out of it all the way to a slaughterhouse, saw these wild horses being unloaded to be slaughtered. And from that day in 1971, well, in 1971, she actually got legislation passed, but she started this amazing grassroots organization where she had kids write to the president and ask him to protect America's wild horses. And Richard Nixon actually brought in a bill to protect the wild horses and wild burros of America. And just pause there because I had to Google this. Oh, wild burros

means wild donkey. Yes. See, I did my homework. You did. Yeah. So this amazing piece of legislation came in ostensibly to protect them and increase their numbers. And since then, it's really been a battle between advocates for the wild horses, the cattle ranchers, and extractive mining companies, because our public lands where these wild horses live are also used to mine uranium and plutonium and oil and gas and coal. And so these... That can't be healthy for them. No. So the government's intent is really just to clear the public lands of wild horses because they don't make any money off them.

And they do the cattle lobbyists have enormous pull and sway in Congress. But, you know, it is funny because we always used to talk about the BLM rounding up these horses and then Black Lives Matter came along and they were so much- I was about to say, don't blame it on Black Lives Matter now. Hold on now. But wait. What does Black Lives Matter have to do with the wild horses, Clara? You've already lost me. Why are they out there rounding up all those horses? It was a very confusing pivot that the

organization made. So I try and say the longer version as you just did, Bureau of Land Management. Okay. But Clara, why? So just to go slowly, because there's a lot to digest. Yeah. Is the cattle lobby at the heart of why they are rounding up these horses? A lot of the time, yes. They have just historically in a state like Wyoming, for example, you know, you only have to watch Yellowstone. And these cattle barons back in the day had so much power, and they really treated public lands as a free grazing asset for their cows that they would turn out onto public lands.

They would fatten them up and then bring them into slaughter and make a lot of money from it. But these days, a lot of the people that own these massive cattle ranches are really doing it as a tax break. They're massive conglomerations like the Koch brothers and Hilton. And they get so many tax breaks from running this kind of scam where the taxpayers are paying to not only round up the wild horses in favor of cows and sheep, but also because they're the people that are electing the people in these states. So the cattle lobbyists put money into their campaigns and get them elected. And in exchange, they keep rounding up the horses and keep goating them as being the most detrimental thing to public lands when really cows and sheep outnumber horses 50 to 1 sometimes on public lands.

They're saying that horses are grazing too much? Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, and the percentages are tiny, Claire. I looked this up, and you'll know if this is accurate or not, but I was just, again, trying to be a good interviewer because Donald and I are teaching ourselves to be really good interviewers. and I are teaching ourselves to be really good interviewers. It looks, you know, the percentages of horses to livestock is minuscule.

Minuscule. How do they get away with blaming the loss of whatever I'm assuming is the feed to the horses if the number of cattle outnumber the horses by so much of a percentage? Yeah. And I know this is going to come as a huge shocker to you, but the government lies. What? The BLM are an agency, a government agency under the Department of the Interior. And they sort of make up a whole bunch of reasons for why the horses have to keep being rounded up. But really really it comes back to the same reason the buffalo went extinct or the Native American Indians were put on reservations.

It's no different to the Wild West that it used to be. It's a land grab. It's let's get rid of everything that's inconvenient and not making us money. And that's their primary purpose, I think, for being. And it's been an amazing thing in the last few years because there are, because of social media, there are now so many groups, photographers that go out and photograph these wild horses, which are so beautiful. And, and I think most of the American

public would rather see, you know, herds of picturesque horses that all have names now and, you know, are very well known. And then the BLM comes and rounds up 3,000 of them at a time. And it's heartbreaking for a lot of people, but there just doesn't seem to be anything that we can do. They have the law on their sides and it keeps happening. It's so crazy, man, because it seems like horses, Mustangs, all of of that it seems so american you know what i mean it seems so yeah it's like it's like apple pie almost land totally the horse you know what i mean cowboys all of that stuff yeah uh and it's really interesting that the government's trying to round them up and that take us into chapter two of the story just to just to go through it all so then what they do

talk us through the roundup they round up these wild horses using a help using helicopters i believe you're going to tell us about it and then they put them in these in sort of holding pens that as you can imagine are not ideal conditions at all so tell us about that part of it yeah so they they announce a roundup they ask for public comment they ignore them all and a certain, you know, they'll say, okay, this roundup is going to take two weeks. And helicopters come and push all these wild horses into a trap, which kind of has just burlap on either side. And they use a Judas horse, which is really interesting that it's called that. A Judas horse? What's that? Yeah. So they hold onto a tame horse who's trained to run into the trap. And when he starts running alongside the other horses, they all follow him in, which is why he's called- Oh, that's so sad. He's a Judas.

I know. He's a Judas. He's betraying all his- He turns on them. Yeah. He turns on them. So that's's always interesting but i mean that the roundups are horrific and brutal a lot of the horses die or are shot at the trap site for having any kind of impediment like if they've can't see out of one eye or they have you know a broken knee like puffed up knee it's it's things they've been living out in the wild and they were just chased by a helicopter managed to survive that and then sadly they've been living out in the wild and they were just chased by a helicopter and managed to survive that. And then sadly, they shoot them at the trap site if they think they're unadoptable.

And they're then taken to short-term holding facilities, which are all over the Western states in every state. And they're kept there. Some are adopted out. But most tend to go to these long-term holding facilities, which is yet another way for ranchers and cowboys to make money off these wild horses because they get paid millions to have wild horses on their land or stockpile them or keep them in pens until they die. So it's a pretty sad life from the day. Wait, I'm so confused.

Why are they paid millions to house horses, but not millions to take care of the horses? So you don't have to take care of the horse. All you have to do is house the horse. Yeah. House the horse and you get paid a certain amount a day. And it really is a black hole that horses disappear into. And there's very little way of finding out where they went.

So they could be slaughtered and turned into food. Yeah, talk about the slaughter piece, Claire, because Claire was telling me that the government has a program where they say you can adopt one of these horses, and they'll actually pay you $1,000 to take on one of these animals. Yeah. But then they discovered that there's a loophole where people are, quote unquote, adopting them

and then selling them for slaughter for meat in Mexico. Do I have that right? Yeah, Mexico and Canada. So yeah, that's exactly what happens. People come and they might take four or eight or 12 or 16 because you can adopt them in groups of four. So they get their entire family to each adopt four bring them to their place and then as soon as they get the title for the horse and it

means they own them they take them to the local auction livestock auction and sell them for meat money which is the price per pound that they're selling at at that time and then they're shipped to either Mexico or Canada because America shut down horse slaughter plants a long time ago just because Americans decided we don't eat horses. They're companion animals. They have helped us found this country and pull a plow and go into war with us, and we don't eat them. But yet we don't want them here anymore.

We want the land instead. Yeah. Now, Claire, explain We want the land instead. Yeah. I mean. Now, Claire, explain to me the loophole. How does, if we have outlawed slaughter, but the loophole is that you can sell it to someone in Mexico who can slaughter it? And you still get paid? Yeah, you get $1,000 per horse to take it. Yeah.

Do they pay you to take care of it too? Am I correct? No, they're just paying you to adopt it. Yeah, exactly. You can adopt, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Claire, you can literally take $1,000 per horse to adopt it and then turn around and sell it to slaughter in Mexico. Yeah. So you sell it to a kill buyer.

You sell it at a livestock auction, but it's usually going to be a kill buyer that buys up these large numbers of unhandled wild horses because there's not much other use for them. And then they will ship them in huge semi trucks across the border to Mexico where they are killed in the most horrifying way. So we won't even talk about that because it's too horrible to even think about. Okay. Now, when we come back, we're going to take a quick break. That's all the bad news.

Now, when we come back after this break, we're going to tell you what this angel of a human being sent from the heavens above has dedicated her life to doing to save these animals. We'll be right back. If you've been following the news, you know that from health care access to safe schools, LGBTQ plus rights are under attack. And it's about time queer and trans youth get the microphone and tell their stories in their own words. I'm Raquel Willis. Join me on my new podcast, Queer Chronicles, a show where LGBTQ plus folks tell their own stories in their own words. This season, teens will share all about growing up in political battleground states. I wish I could feel more comfortable in my own body here, but that's just not the case. And follow along as they discover what queer and trans liberation means to them.

This isn't running away from yourself. It's running into who you want to grow into. Listen to Queer Chronicles on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most fabulous shows. iHeartRadio app. In retrospect, revisit pop culture moments from the 80s and 90s and try to understand what it taught us about the world and a woman's place in it. Crying in Public. Two 20-something college women living in NYC dive into growing up at a time when there was no distinction

between what's public and what's private. Best of Both Worlds. A discussion on work-life balance, career development, parenting, time management, productivity, and making time for fun. Hear these podcasts and more on your free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I used to have so many men. How this beguiling woman in her 50s.

She looked like a million bucks. With zero qualifications. She had a Harvard plaque. Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents. She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentleys all in the driveway. Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. That this queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes. About six million. Approximately 11 million dollars. Nearly 1010 million was all gone.

Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry. She would probably have sex with one of her clients. Hide your money in your old rich man, because she is on the prowl. Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer, on the

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back with Claire Staples. Claire, one of the videos. So I want you to tell us all about the foundation you founded. I sent listeners to it already. You have to follow her on Instagram, Sky Dog Sanctuary.

Do I have that right? Yes, correct. You will be like my mom and I, or wait, my mom and me, Krista, your friend. Krista, it would be so pissed off if you get this wrong. By the way, you know this. One thing about Krista is if you don't say the right me and I version, she corrects you. But there is no I version is what she said to us originally. No, there is.

You just have to say the trick she taught me is you take out the name. So I would say you have to join me in watching Sky Dog Sanctuary Instagram. So then I add my mom and I go, you have to join my mom and me. Right? You wouldn't say you have to join I. I think I got that right. I don't want to get in trouble. Krista's been lecturing me on that for 23 years,

but I think I finally got it. I'm going to say since I've known her, and I've fucked it up every time. Yeah, because she is shameless. If you don't say the right version, she corrects you. Right. I've said it wrong quite a few times. Since we're here, I always say it wrong,

but now if we're in front of her friend Claire, we've got to get it right. Join my mom and me in watching Sky Dog Sanctuary videos. Claire, you're such a good storyteller. You know every single one of these horses' names. Tell us about the foundation. There was a viral video that I recommend. There's an account called The Dodo, which I think focuses on, on animal stories. And you have a few, you have a few stories. Yeah. The Dodo is a big fan of Claire, but talk about, uh, I just watched it and I had tears

came to my eyes. This is kind of like a beautiful distillation of what Claire does. And, and the, tell the story of the, of the Mustang that, photographed jumping out of one of these pens and trying to escape and then Claire was able to reunite him with one of his men. Don't give it away.

Okay, sorry, spoiler, but Claire, tell the story, please. Because this is the kind of thing that Claire does and it's detective work and it's just amazing. Please. The fact that you were able to, and it's detective work, and it's just amazing. Please. The fact that you were able to, and also, last thing, the fact that you were able to put two and two together. Look, I look at horses.

Them things all look alike. I'm going to keep it 100. I love, I think they're beautiful. They don't all look alike, Donald. I mean, yes, some are darker than others, but you put a white horse in front of me, I'm going to be like, silver. You know what I mean? All right, Claire, please tell the story of this beautiful Mustang. That was just such an extraordinary thing for us because actually someone that does a lot of techie stuff sent to me a screenshot of us trending at

number seven on YouTube or something like that that day. And I was just mind blown because I think I'm living in this little world of horse people. And then the fact that it had gone so viral. And that was a horse named Phoenix, who it really just started with a photograph. I follow some of the advocacy groups. And I saw this photograph of this distinctive horse jumping a seven foot panel after he'd been chased by helicopter, pushed in. And his family was sort of looking up as he went over the fence. And I just thought, because it was my local corrals, which is like two hours away, I thought, I'm just going to go there and see if that horse survived. You know, is he there? And there he was with another horse

that was in that video, it was his kind of lieutenant in the band and I saw his mare and then I inquired about him and they told me that he was going to be released into the wild and he you know because of his genetics and stuff anyway months and months went by and I used to go to the crowds and every time I would see him and tell him he's going to go out and be free again and And then one day they was lying. Yeah. It's a common thread, but anyway, he was still there like a year later. And I asked about him because his friend had now gone and they'd sent his friend to Germany

to a Mustang event. And he was now available for adoption. So I adopted him because I was like, that horse wanted to be free more than any horse I've seen like he jumped like higher than any horse I've ever seen so I was like let's give him back his freedom but I could never find his mare and it was I think a year and a half later I always look on the internet adoptions and there she was and I literally was like wait and I was looking at the pictures of her and looking at her and looking at the pictures I was like it's her so how long how long were you looking at like that's the question like it was it's definitely not a split you had to freaking pay attention to oh there were certain things that

you had to find and yeah I was like okay she has orange ears even though she's white and orange knees and she has this mark on her shoulder and her tail is like this i mean it really was like zooming in on the pictures going i think that's her and then when we brought her home and reunited her with phoenix we called her ghost ghost yeah because she was like a ghost yeah not only was she not only is she a a white uh horse horse, which reminds you of like a ghost with a sheet over it and everything like that. She's literally a ghost. After you adopted Phoenix, it's impossible to find ghosts. Totally.

I thought she was long gone. Disappeared. Yeah, gone. Because I'd looked for her at the crowds and never found her there. So I was like, where the heck has she been? You know, suddenly to appear on the internet adoption so long afterwards. And their reunion was really beautiful. All of the families that we've reunited, it's been one of our most popular things, even though it's a small fraction of what we do. It is something that has touched people's hearts, I think, really deeply. Because this is something I didn't know, Claire, until I spoke to you,

but these families stay together in the wild. That's what I was about to say. I was going to say, can you talk about how horses are like, the bond is forever. Yeah. Till death. A male horse will have a group of mares and then their children, and they continue to hang together as a family, right?

Well, they actually, the males kick out the young colts, the boys at about two years old, because they don't want them competing with them within their family, which kind of it's good because it creates diversity. And then the young fillies will be stolen by other young stallions so there's kind of a stallion in his mare and they might be having children but then those children go out and have their own families but yeah the bonds they form out there and they have their own little societies and it's really we have we rescued one family that's four generations of like a grandmother her daughter her daughter her son

and they had stayed together if a stallion stole one they would all go with him and it's just very cool to watch and be around them they're such deep deeply thinking and profoundly um sentient beings you know and that's why the whole slaughter pipeline i think is really hard to watch because you know, they know, you know, they know they're in a bad place. They've lost their freedom, their family, and now their lives. And it's, it's just a horrible, it's a horrible underbelly that so, and, and I really do appreciate you having me on because there are so many, you think everyone knows, but nobody knows. I didn't know. I love animals.

I love animals. I love horses. I had no idea about this. And that's why I wanted to have one. I had no idea that the dopamine levels in horses was so high, man. Like that's, we feel love on such levels because of the dopamine that we have in our body, right? Like that. I love that.

have in our body, right? I love that. And we don't ever look at other animals as unique and as special as us because they don't have communication. We don't look at them as intelligent and stuff like that. But to hear that the bond is not... I don't know, man. There's something special about staying together. You know what I mean? We make movies about that shit. All of the best movies in the world are how we stay together as a family. Nothing could break the family apart. And to know that horses are like this, it's really mind-blowing. It's also inspiring.

What Claire's creating is a really special sanctuary where all these animals that have been separated in the most brutal way can be brought together. Let's take in it. Crying in Public. Two 20-something college women living in NYC dive into growing up at a time when there was no distinction between what's public and what's private. Best of Both Worlds. A discussion on work-life balance, career development, parenting, time management, productivity, and making time for fun. Hear these podcasts and more on your free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I used to have so many men. How this beguiling woman in her 50s...

She looked like a million bucks. ...with zero qualifications... She had a Harvard plaque. ...tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents... She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentleys all in the driveway. Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. That this queen of the con uses to scam some

of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes. About six million. Approximately eleven million dollars. Nearly ten million dollars was all gone. Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry. She would probably have sex with one of her clients.

Hide your money in your old Richmond because she is on the prowl. Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Athlete Whisperer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As important as choosing the right destination when traveling is choosing the right travel partner. Gene! Eugene Fodor! Gene, who's budding?

Much of the joy you will find on the road comes from the person you share it with. So you ride the books, Gene, and the last hour on the business. I understand now. If it's a wise man, marry a wiser woman. But be careful and choose your travel partner well, because the worst trips result when two partners have two different agendas. Get down! I'm not stupid, Gene. Something is going on and it's high time you tell me the truth.

Freeze, Americano! Gene, run! So travel before it's too late. Your money will return, your time won't, and we're all too quickly approaching that final destination. Listen to Fodor's Guide to Espionage on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And I also want to segue into, there's the family reunification thing, which is so beautiful. But also, a lot of the stories on your Instagram, I noticed, are how you and your team are rehabilitating these injured horses. Because obviously, a lot of them come in really messed up. and some of them are blind some of them have cancer every every issue you can imagine a wild horse who's been in captivity in in in poor conditions might have so talk about that how you how you and the and the vets decide how much you can do? When is an animal beyond your ability to help it and needs to be put down? Can you talk about that? And also talk about how the illnesses and stuff like that, a normal rancher would just put down that animal right away and not give the animal a chance in how you're saving them. Yep.

And I do appreciate it is one thing we've worked really hard to establish a relationship with our local corrals that round up these horses because they do shoot a lot of horses for having small things, which really aren't a death sentence. And we have really appreciated the fact that they've now let us come and take special needs horses or seniors that might be euthanized. And we've just had such success with that. And I think it's really informed a lot of people because often euthanasia is the first place that vets go to or people go to in thinking that this horse has this or that. And a lot of the rehabs we've done have been kind of groundbreaking in showing other people. We took on this donkey,

Waldo, and his hooves, which are kind of supposed to end like that, they had grown all the way around. So he was kind of walking on his knuckles. And even when the vets first saw him they were like Claire I mean this is you know this is not what we expected but we did a lot of research and we showed it to them to be to be fair to that vet he called a lot of people that were experts they did these like two surgeries on his legs and got his feet and now he runs around this donkey Waldo is so popular popular. And he has now used that as a sort of test study in a case and written a paper on it for other people to do the same on horses or donkeys that have the same issue. So those things are really meaningful to us

because it's meant that we've actually done things. And they can be costly and it takes a lot of rehabbing, a lot of kind of personal care from the staff, getting them back to normal. But then to see them live these wonderful lives and blind horses, you know, be able to get around. And we've sometimes had a pen of blind horses all start running and they're running in between the trees.

And you think, how is that possible that they, you know, but they learn it in their mind. They mental map the whole thing and they know where their water is. I saw that video. I got tears in my eyes. You guys got to look for that video on her Instagram. And it's a pen, a large pen of blind horses.

And they're all together, and they're running so fast. And Claire is narrating it. She goes, you'd think that they would be in danger, but they have literally memorized every tree, everything that they could run into. It's so beautiful. Yeah, it was very cool. So we do a lot of that. But also, I think it's also what Donald was saying about the families and the bonds they

have, that was such an inconvenient truth for the BLM because they want to portray these animals as livestock. They have a tag number. They are only useful as a tool to be used by people. And to then rewrite that story and show through amazing evidence that these animals do have these bonds and families and love for each other, that's palpable and easy to see. It's been a very thing that the BLM really fought against, but now they've kind of put up their hands and go find that they have families, you know, and then other sanctuaries and other rescues have reunited families, which is the coolest thing because I think, you know, then we can recognize these animals as, you know,

who are we as men to say we're the only ones that love our children or we're the only ones that have deep bonds? And so it's cool. I've been really proud of that. And it's really spooky because all of these horses have, I mean, it's analogous to the Holocaust with the numbers on people's wrists. That all of these horses, when you watch the videos, have government, what do you call it? Stamps. No, what do you call it? Stamps. No, what do you call it? Brands.

Brands. Government brands. And Claire was trying to explain to me, when their hair grows out, you can't really read the brand, but she was saying they're kind of tricky to read anyway. What is that? It denotes where they were captured, right? Yeah. It says U.S.

They're the property of the U.S. government, and then it gives them the year that they estimate they were born and then where they were rounded up and a tag number to identify them with. They're branded this or this is shaved into this? They're branded, yeah. It's branded. But when you watch the videos, you'll see that because their hair is growing out a bit, it's a little hard to even decipher what it says. You ever been branded? No, personally, no, I have not been branded. They do it in college fraternities. Sometimes that shit gets infected, man. That man that shit does not look good man i know a couple of people that have been branded

they got that horseshoe on their arm that shit don't look good bro that shit hurts too well i think we should do a they were like i was infected i would they'd be like i was infected for weeks donald would you be open to a fake doctor's real friends brand? In opposite worlds. Daniel, you? I think I'm good, but I appreciate it. I'll be there to supervise. I can hold your hand. If somebody want to pay me that, you want to pay me that money, I'll get that shit.

No, I'm not going to pay you for a fake doctor's real friends brand. No, absolutely not. It was a volunteer project. No, no, no, no, no. As representative of iHeart, I'm going to say we do not condone branding. Yeah, no. On that show Yellowstone they brand the life as people that are gonna stay there for life they give them the why on their chest and it's quite well I love

I think you can imagine that Claire might like Yellowstone as she's dedicated her life to ranching yeah I want to be Beth Bears when I bet Beth Bears Beth Dutton I don't think Beth Beth Bears is the sweetest woman in the world and very supportive of our cause and sponsors a horse. Beth Dutton on Yellowstone is a very she's a character. I've never watched the show.

But Donald doesn't watch most things that don't have Star Wars, Marvel. Well, I hear Harrison Ford's in Yellowstone now. That's a prequel. You might want to watch that. Prequel. Yeah. You can pretend it's Han Solo. I can pretend it's Han Solo or Indiana Jones? Yes. I'd

prefer not to. I would prefer to pretend that there are some Black Ranchers on Yellowstone. There are! There are on Yellowstone. Who plays them? Who do they get to play the Black Ranchers? Denim Richards? Denim Richards? Is he? Will you please Google on Yellowstone. Who plays them? Who do they get to play the Black Ranchers? Donald is going to be mad that he... Doesn't Denim Richards,

is he... Oh, that's... Joelle, will you please Google... I never thought I'd ask this. She knows, Claire knows her actors. Joelle, will you please Google the Black actors

who play the ranchers? Donald wants to be mad at them for getting a role he could have gotten. That I could have gotten with Harrison Ford on Yellowstone. Oh my gosh.

Claire, tell us a little bit about, as Joelle looks that up, the charity aspects. I was explaining to the audience that you do fundraise for individual causes for surgeries and stuff. But you and your husband pay for the majority of this, as I understand. You've built this 9,000 acre sanctuary, right? Talk a little bit about how people can give and what they're actually giving for. Yeah. I mean, it all came about, I had a sort of epiphany at age 50. I sort of looked around and looked at my life and I'd spent most of that part of my life believing in the things that people tell you will make you happy. You know, if you get to this weight or you have this car or you live in this place where you have that

boyfriend and having had all those things, realizing that it wasn't as a happiness that was sustainable, it, you know, it was very fleeting and then you want another thing or another person or another place. And just kind of realizing that, you know, and also I'm in recovery. So getting back into sobriety and realizing that I really, truly wanted to be of service and horses had been my deepest love and passion, you know, in my childhood and throughout my life, they'd kind of come back in. And I just thought, if I can take that passion I have and turn it into a life worth living, like a purpose-driven life is a book I read at the time. And I was like, that's really the key to happiness for human beings, being of service and having a purpose. So it really just shifted. I was like, okay, how do I do this? and i had some horses at the time

but i thought there are so many in need and so many um wild horses that i reading about the plight of wild horses and how many were in the slaughter pipeline i just kind of went to my husband and went we're gonna need a bigger ranch and that's the famous words we're gonna need a bigger ranch 9 000 acres that's not a small ranch and if i have understood what 9 000 acres look like i might have had some pools but i was about to say like you have to did you have to tear down tree like there's you did like i don't know what a 9 000 acre ranch would look like either but that's a lot of maintenance i do i do know that and then you have like two landscaping bill is huge right just got to be outrageous and then you have all of the horse uh tack and field that you have to purchase and stuff like that like hey and

and now and all of them and their special needs horses a lot of them they need they need incredible amount of of vet help like you could be i don't care if you're rich, you got to have some type of support coming in. You can't sustain this type of lifestyle. Like this is like buying kids times, you know, you know what? Shoot. I don't know how many horses you got. It's a lot of money though.

It's my point. Let's take a break. We'll be right back after these fine words. when there was no distinction between what's public and what's private. Best of both worlds, a discussion on work-life balance, career development, parenting, time management, productivity, and making time for fun. Hear these podcasts and more on your free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. As important as choosing the right destination when traveling

is choosing the right travel partner. Gene! Eugene Fodor! Gene! Much of the joy you will find on the road comes from the person you share it with. But be careful and choose your travel partner well, because the worst trips result when two partners have two different agendas. Get down! I'm not stupid, Gene.

Something is going on in its high time you tell me the truth. Freeze, Americano! Gene, run! So travel before it's too late. Your money will return, your time won't, and we're all too quickly approaching that final destination. Listen to Fodor's Guide to Espionage on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I used to have so many men.

How this beguiling woman in her 50s. She looked like a million bucks. With zero qualifications. She had a Harvard plaque. Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents. She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentleys all in the driveway. Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. That this queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes. About $6 million. Approximately $11 million.

Nearly $10 million was all gone. Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry. She would probably have sex with one of her clients. Hide your money in your old rich man because she is on the prowl. Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How many do you have on the property? We have 300 equines.

230 of them are horses, wild horses, and the rest are mules or donkeys, BLM donkeys. And we have two zebras as well, two baby zebras and some zonkeys, which is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. I love a zonkey. I love a zonkey. So, yeah, my husband was amazing in helping me set up the whole thing. And I said to him, if you help me set this up, I promise after year three, I will be fully self-supporting through my own contributions, which is a thing that we say in AA. And I kind of got there in 18 months because I just, I'm one of these people that when I put my heart and soul and energy into something, I want to be

the best that I can be. And it just kept growing. And especially actually during the pandemic, I realized that our social media was really becoming this place where people were coming to watch these videos of these horses who ironically were being released to being wild and free when we were all trapped in our houses and living in fear and we didn't want to watch the news. So people were saying, you know, I was getting these emails from people saying, you know, we watch, I watch this with the kids in my class in the morning, you know, school teachers or in nursing homes. And we watch your video in the morning, we talk about the horses and it is just, sometimes we watch it 10 times on a loop to be in nature and to be around these horses

and we cry and we laugh with joy. And I suddenly realized, wow, this is something the people that are on the journey with us, it's a way that they can emote, you know, kind of like a good movie. You know, you want to feel all those things. And I think they get so attached to the horses. And when we lose one, for example, they'll still cry about it. You know, if I mentioned a name and it's, it's been a beautiful journey for that. And I, and I suddenly realized I had a responsibility, not just, I wasn't just helping horses.

We were kind of helping people get through and me myself. It was like good for my mental health. So the videos got longer and the stories got longer and it just sort of became more of a thing and grew beyond my wildest dreams so and so when you fundraise um on the instagram or what are your other channels often is it for a specific horse like this horse needs this surgery if you want to contribute is that the idea often we only have a fundraise when a horse is coming to us and we are so incredibly well supported.

I mean, I'm so thankful that people, it's really their way of showing their love for the horses, you know, that inspire them and that they love and care for. And they, our supporters have been incredible. So we tend to fundraise when a horse comes. We rarely have to, we have a vet fund where we have a um a platform called patreon patreon where people go on and you can be on different tiers and that's where a lot of our funds come for for our vet fund our hay fund fencing fund so that's just things that are generally going on but yeah our vet bills are you know, because we take a lot of horses. Can horses be adopted from you guys?

We have tried very hard to focus on the horses that we take being ambassadors for the amount of horses that are in need. So people will because of us. You know, I've helped so many people pull horses out of the slaughter pipeline for them to rescue or from the BLM corrals. I'll help them go there and do their paperwork and, you know, tell them what they need to do. So we haven't adopted out up until like what we've done a lot is work with other rescues that do have adoption arms that are great. And we've helped them save 10 or 20 horses out of the source pile. I think we've rescued about 250 additional horses that then got adopted out through other rescues. It's just, I think I'm not a very good foster. I'm not, you know, I- Oh, you're a foster failure. You're a foster failure.

You fail all the time. What's amazing about Claire is that she knows every single one of these horses' names by sight. And she told me that sometimes she'll get it wrong and on the Instagram videos and people will start correcting her. That's not snow. That's cedar. Yes, totally. And it's extraordinary because I'm like, that's a sorrel, which is a red horse, like in the distance with a blaze. But I think they take it very seriously.

And they're like, you know, that's not jalapeno.'s otis and i'm like you are actually right so he's like he has one white sock on his back left and i'm going what how do you know it is amazing that you know that you can that you know the names of all those horses yeah i can't remember the names of any people but yeah horse i don't know why i guess because of all of the stuff we go through at the beginning when we take them in you know and and i named most of them which is really fun i love it's like you bond with them when they come in too when you brought when you brought uh phoenix home just you know how scared phoenix was and how you coaxed him into, come on in. It's all right.

Don't worry about it. It's all right, baby. It's all right. And finally, this, you know, the horse is now healthy and has grown. You know, the muscles are back on its back, you know. And then just in time for that beautiful- Just in time for Shorty to show up. Shorty to show up. Just in time for Shorty.

Then Shorty named Ghost shows up and he's like, hi. He's like, look at me. I've been working out, baby. Let's go for a walk. That's so sweet. Well, Claire, tell anyone who's listening, if they want to contribute, or first of all, I'm telling you to go to Sky Dog Sanctuary, the Instagram account.

You can also put that into YouTube where you'll see, that's where I saw the Dodo videos, which are very moving. But Claire, for those that want to contribute to the Patreon, would you tell them where to go to do that? Yeah. So our Patreon is just patreon.com stroke Sky Dog Sanctuary. We have a YouTube channel. We also have a website that actually is

skydogranch.org and you can donate through that you can donate through any of our social media platforms or join us on patreon where you see a lot of behind the scenes videos and i show a lot on there and i talk much more openly on patreon to everyone and I mean, they're amazing. You went English for a second. I think you meant backslash. Is that what we say, guys? It would be patreon.com backslash skydog

sanctuary. I said stroke. Yeah, that's very English of you. We don't say that here. We do say that here, but it means something else. Oh, Donald, please don't be inappropriate in front of our guests. I wasn't being inappropriate. We managed to get through the whole episode with not one innuendo. I was stroking your ego.

Without stroking your ego? Really? Really? You're trying to say innuendo in front of a very proper English woman. I wasn't making an innuendo. I just said we used it different. I swear like a sailor. And I was laughing.

I watched the last podcast you did, I think, and you were talking about Below Deck. And I was laughing because I think my entire management skills for managing my crew, because I have a chief stew, who's my equine manager, and then the equine staff, and then the guys who are kind of the deck team. And I was like, I'm always telling them, you just have to watch Below Deck. You'll understand.

I don't know if you want to educate your staff to go watch Below Deck because they all get hammered and hooked up with each other. That's true. That's not in courage. Well, they're on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. I know. I'm sure they're all hooking up with each other anyway. Do you think they're all on Farmers.com?

Farmers only.com? That would be a good – By the way, we should make a Below Deck style reality show, but about Claire's staff. It would be, I don't know. They're all hooking up and getting hammered. I'd be Captain Sandy.

Yeah, you would. You are Captain Sandy. You're a bad-ass woman, Captain Sandy. Oh my God. But you can literally like, if you do work as a ranch hand,

you could literally be like, I can go on farmersonly.com. Cause I've always wondered, I've always wondered what are the qualifications? i can go on farmers only.com because i've always wondered i've always wondered what are the qualifications i know it says farmers qualifications are you're down to get up at four in the morning and milk cows as a wife that is it joelle is not going to be on farmers only.com i hear they'll be hooking up on farmers only.com i hear it's a good hookup place well you've heard through the grapevine in Los Angeles that Farmers Only is a good hookup spot. That's what I heard.

You know, if I ever lose my husband for other reason, for some reason, I would go there because they are going to have skills to work on the ranch. Right, they'll know what to do at least. Also, Claire, will you please help me explain to Donald that it's about choosing the lifestyle of being in bumblefuck and getting up early and working? Yeah, it is a lifestyle. Your typical female or male who's trying to meet someone there who's not in that lifestyle. On Farmers Only? Yeah. We're all so tired.

Let's say you're on J-Date. Okay? And you're not Jewish. Let's say you're a nice Jewish gal on J-Date. No, let's say you're on J-Date and you're not Jewish. Get the fuck off, right? That's what you're on j-date okay let's say you're not jewish let's say you're a nice jewish gal no let's say you're on j-date and you're not jewish get the fuck off right that's what you're saying no i didn't say that i think you're allowed to not be jewish on j-date i don't know the rules daniel but farmers only strictly for farmers daniel can you be non-jewish on j-date or do they check your foreskin can you find out donald the farmers, you wouldn't want to match with someone and be like,

hey, I really am crazy about you, but the whole milking cows in the morning thing, I live in Manhattan. Oh, my God. It's too funny to imagine. I might have to go on there just to find out what's going on. Claire, you should just do a little recon for us and come back on. I will. All right, Daniel, go ahead.

Let's see what's going on. I'm thrilled to report that on J-Date, individuals do not have to be Jewish in order to join J-Date. Oh, there you go. You could join. And on Farmers Only, it isn't just for farmers. It's for anyone interested in living a more rural lifestyle. Well, let me tell you something.

You're going to fall in love with someone who's going to be like, you're down to milk those cows at 530, right? You'll be you're like what now that's my below deck watching time how am i supposed to get up at 5 30 if i was up till 2 a.m watching below deck men well maybe that's what below deck down under is all about maybe, yeah, I don't know what they're doing on there. They're in Australia, Claire. Stop trying to make sexual innuendo jokes. Oh, I had to make one. Donald has a bad impression of influenza.

Let's take a break. We'll be right back after these fine words. This segment of Fake Doctors, Real Friends is brought to you by T-Mobile. When you need great coverage, especially when enjoying your favorite podcast, check out T-Mobile. Okay, today, Joelle pulled a couple of fan letters that she's going to read to us now. So, we get a ton of letters that are not asking us for anything. They don't want advice. The best kind of letter.

They're not trying to be on the show. The best kind of letter, Joelle. Sharing some love. And I was like, how do we honor these people who are just sending us such lovely thoughts? So here we go. Our first letter comes from Matt Mulvaney. It's from the UK. He says, hey! Not Mick Mulvaney, right? Not Mick Mulvaney.

Matt Mulvaney. Okay, so this is actually a question, but it's a fun question. I have a question that I've been wondering for a while. I am. This is a question. I'm listening. All right. It looks like you're looking at your Farmer's Only account. How did you know? All right, go ahead.

Oh, my God. Donald's looking down like he's signing up for Farmer's Only. All right, go ahead, Joel. Sorry. Okay, so the beginning of the series, J.D. has the apartment. But when Carla and Turk move in, it's J.D. that has to move out. Why? Well, no. J.D. and Turk have the apartment.

Not J.D. has the apartment. Yeah, but you did. Why don't y'all move out and find a new place? Why do you evict J.D.? They don't. J.D. decides to move out. He's living with them for the longest. Yeah, but why can't they get their own place? JD's got a nice apartment.

Yeah, that I don't know. JD decided to move out on his own, man. That I do not understand. All right. We don't have an answer for you, but we... Because it's good for storytelling. How about that? Whatever the answer is, Donald and I didn't come up with it.

So there you go. Go ahead, Joelle. All right. So our next question comes from mary chandler mary says hey joelle i just want to say thanks i've been listening to the podcast since the very beginning i was religiously tuning in every day a new episode dropped but then in december 2021 my dad passed away from covid and i struggled a lot the podcast is so funny and silly and happy so i didn't listen for a while because I didn't feel like I could be happy.

I'm doing better now, and this summer, I've been frantically trying to catch up with all the episodes. I'm on 704 right now. I quit my bar industry job in order to help out my mom since my dad passed away so suddenly. I left behind coworkers that were like family, and I miss them a lot. Listening to the four of you helps fill a little of that void. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the friendship you four have.

It's been healing for me. It's incredible that you all met and care about each other. It really comes through in the show. I could go on and on, but I'm trying to be as brief as possible. Thank you again. Cheers, Mary. Mary, that's so sweet. Mary, I love you.

Mary, it's like Zach, I love you. Mary, I love you. Mary, I love you. Yeah, I think that- Mary, I love you. Mary, I love you. Mary, I love you. Yeah, I think that- Mary, I love you. I think if you ask the four of us what would make us feel the warmest in our hearts would be what Mary's saying. The idea that we could make you laugh when you're feeling sad.

The idea that we could bring a giggle to your day or your car ride or whatever it is, is all we all really want to do. That's all we want to do. He's not lying. When I'm loud and when I'm making all of this noise and all of that stuff, it's really for you guys. I swear on my life. For real, I really do want you guys to enjoy your day and be happy and feel the energy

that, you know, feel the energy that we're sending through the airwaves, however you describe your podcast, whether it's radio or not, you know what I mean? We understand the responsibility that we have. And, you know, it's really important to us that you enjoy your time with us. Yeah. We want to create an hour or so of hopefully some laughs and some hopefully occasionally some thoughtfulness like our guest today. And that's all we want to do. And it brings us so much joy to hear feedback like that.

So thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Thanks, T-Mobile. Did you know that at T-Mobile, new and existing customers always get the same great device deals with Go 5G Plus plans? It's true. So why wait? Go check out T-Mobile.com slash GoCY. Now back to the show.

All right, Claire Staples, you're an incredible human being. You are inspiration. And I love that. I am so moved also that this part of this spark came out of your recovery and wanting to be of service to our country and humanity. And I just think you're an extraordinary person. Thank you. You know when they do those CNN extraordinary people things? I should be on that. We should submit Claire.

This is the fake doctor. Yeah, this is our version. This is our version. You're our first candidate for- This is way more fun. Yeah. By the way, Donald, we should do that. We should have extraordinary people like Claire

on, and then we'll do our CNN version of Extraordinary Person of the Year. Yes, I love it. Well, you're the first guest. Thank you. No offense to Cody, but... You did great by most Americans, Cody, but you got Claire on.

Cody, we love you, but you're not a candidate for special human of the year. And it's only because you don't like Taylor Swift. Yes, that's one of the main reasons that you can just call her fun. How can anyone not? Well, believe it or not, Cody said he did. I didn't like Taylor Swift for six days. A hater? Yes, I don't know if you know this, Claire,

but the haters are going to hate, hate, hate, hate. It was Taylor that told us that. I always forget what the haters are going to do. I know. I'm reminded by Taylor. They're going to hate. But you've got to shake it off. Yes.

Shake that off. And everybody, Claire, we're going to end on that note. If the haters hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, just shake it off. Shake it off. Shake it off. Five, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, just shake it off. Shake it off. Five, six, seven, eight. I said he's got stories

about a show we made about a bunch of docs and nurses in a Canada who love to hate. I said he's got stories that we all should know. So gather round to hear our gather round to hear our Gather round to hear our Scrubs Rewatch Show with Zach and Donald

Now, for years, we have humbly celebrated Women's History Month at QLS with a full month of fantastic female guests. This year, we say with pride that we have four multi-talented, award-winning ladies who kicked down barriers. I'm talking Brittany Howard, Corinne Bailey Ray, and the

incredible choreographer Fatima Robinson. And as well as Lettucey. Listen to QLS on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's like the police knew who he was before they got here. From iHeart Podcasts.

The medical school dean at USC was leading a secret double life. Is she breathing right now? Yes, she's absolutely breathing. I'm a doctor, actually. A story about money, power, and corruption. When people fall in line, they fall in line. Looking back, I realized, oh, everyone knew. I'm Paul Pringle, an investigative reporter for the LA Times.

Listen to Fallen Angels, a story of California corruption, starting March 28th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews, and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind.

Listen to The Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.