Get yourself a “horse cop mom” T-shirt to support Tone Madison

You can now wear Rachal Duggan’s wonderful, absurd illustration for one of our strangest political stories.

A few years back, we at Tone Madison made a splash, and probably set off “I’m not being seen with you in public in that thing”-type arguments in many households, with our Cursed Soggy T-shirt (which you can still buy!). 

Now, we bring you another opportunity to start conversations and be the best-dressed person in any room.

Tone Madison is offering a limited run of T-shirts featuring Rachal Duggan‘s horse mom illustration from the May 3, 2023 article “At UW-Madison, a horse gets better parental leave than humans” by JT Cestkowski. Buy yours now at our Bonfire store, where you can also browse some new Tone Madison logo shirts and hoodies. 

As you can see, it’s a loving portrait. Of a horse. Who is a mom. And also wears a little police hat. 

Just like our last T-shirt, this one requires some explanation. 

You see, when the UW-Madison Police Department announced that one of its horses would enjoy 12 weeks of leave after giving birth to a foal, Cestkowski realized that most of UW-Madison’s human employees had no access to paid parental leave. Cestkowski dug into the obstacles UW employees have faced in their years-long pursuit of this important benefit.

We release this shirt to commemorate a change in this neigh-gligent state of affairs. As of July 1, the University of Wisconsin System and UW-Madison are rolling out (limited) paid parental leave. This took years of advocacy and work, but we’d like to think Cestkowski’s sharp reporting and merciless use of horse puns had a little something to do with it as well. 

Your purchase helps us publish more in-depth journalism at Tone Madison, a worker-owned, reader-supported publication covering culture and politics. Our reporting and commentary dig beneath the surface, and not just on equine-human labor issues. We’re also proud to publish original editorial illustrations from artists in our community. Most of our budget goes directly toward paying people for their work, but we need your help to do that.

Tone Madison donors can receive a discount. If you’d like a donor discount code and haven’t received one in your email yet, please send a note to scott@tonemadison.com and we’ll get you set up.