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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Indian Country The Navajo Nation's Dog Problem

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 8:59 AM

This is a bizarre and sad story from the Native American Times about dogs and death.

“You look at the Sundance area where that gentleman was killed, we went in and removed 79 dogs after that and it looked like we never touched it,” Gleason said.

Dogs roam the sides of highways, restaurant, gas station and store parking lots and just about anywhere else they might find food. Their carcasses in various stages of decomposition litter spots along the sides of the main roads and interstates.

After Gleason added the animal control operations to his duties in October, he said he ordered his officers to conduct a series of roundups. Between October and April, he said officers picked up 2,332 dogs. Of those, only 79 were adopted and 313 were released back to their owners. The rest were euthanized. The roundups were cancelled shortly after that, he said, “because we ran out of money.”

Uh... good morning?

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Comments (12) RSS

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You white men have much to answer for! Now native Americans are neglecting dogs due to your centuries of murder and oppression.

Posted by Men, only men. And white. Oh, and straight. on August 18, 2011 at 9:02 AM

rez dogs. skin and bones.

Posted by taint on August 18, 2011 at 9:10 AM

Yikes. Met a guy at the dog park who had adopted a dog imported from the streets of Da Nang. If there's a program rescuing street dogs from Vietnam - why not one (or more) from the Res in the U.S.?

Posted by Just Jeff

on August 18, 2011 at 9:30 AM

The dogs from Da Nang are probably in better condition.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on August 18, 2011 at 9:41 AM

When one is powerless, as the many homeless are and many Native American communities are, you seek control. Dogs love to have you be the Alpha, pack leader. That is often why we see the "homeless at risk youth" with a dog laying down at their feet (that dog loves ME, it needs me, I can order it around). I would think the same need exists on a reservation where the religion, culture, language, life ways and everything were torn away from the people and they were left for dead. The dogs are paying the price for "mans inhumanity to man."

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on August 18, 2011 at 9:52 AM

Fuck.

Posted by merry on August 18, 2011 at 11:16 AM

Shh, don't tell Dan about this. If the Navajo rez is like the Yakima rez, then I'm sure a-lot of those dogs are pits and pit mixes. Please, don't tell Savage, he might santorum himself!

Posted by Tingleyfeeln on August 18, 2011 at 11:17 AM

Overpopulation, it's a bitch.

Posted by Zebes

on August 18, 2011 at 12:12 PM

My ex is didadaht. The first time I visited the rez, I inquired why there were fences as high as 15ft around the houses. Were the rottweilers and pits really aggressive? I was then informed that the fences were to keep cougars from running off with the dogs.
Not all all reservations are the same.

Posted by pussnboots on August 18, 2011 at 1:41 PM

I once had a Lakota roommate who was adamant that my third roommate not spay his cat because it would interfere with her reproductive rights. (Kitty was spayed while he was out of town and couldn't protest). Same roommate's family on Pine Ridge was dirt poor but still had 12+ dogs running rampant about their home and land. The article's author is right--it will take a lot of time, energy, (a big one) money, and trust to convince many people that it's better in the long term for res dogs to be fixed and vaccinated.

Posted by Griffin on August 18, 2011 at 1:46 PM

That was picked up from the AP story. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti…

Posted by Saul on August 19, 2011 at 10:51 AM

Bottom line....on the res, they don't give a SH!T about the dogs. Most of them. A good portion of them. 445,000 dogs roaming around translates to not caring enough to spay and neuter these animals. I am tired of hearing about what 'rights' they had taken away. GET OVER IT!! Many people & cultures have had many rights taken away. So? What's that got to do with having your pet spayed or neutered? YOU brought the dog onto the res as a puppy, then kicked it out when it got bigger. What's the dog supposed to do? They are trying to survive. All they wanted was love and a meal once a day, but could you provide even that much? Indians.....have no trouble embracing other white man toys, like pickup trucks, guns, ATV's, TV's, etc, not embracing spay and neuter is not valid and makes no sense. What do they care about the spiritual rights of a dog? Is it better, spiritually, to let the dog die on the street, hit by a car, starving, abused? THAT"S spiritual???? Give me a break. I llived on a res and I saw what went on. The noble savage BS is just that, BS. They generally spend their days drinking, drugs, avoiding school, hell, they don't even know where their kids are most of the time. Why would they care about dogs? Hey, until they grow up and quit their whining, no animals should be allowed on the res, including horses. Have you seen what they do to their horses? Make it easy for them: NO DOGS ALLOWED ON NAVAJO NATION BY ORDER OF THE....WHO? SPCA?? GOVERNMENT? Until indians learn how to control themselves they cannot be responsible for helpless animals. The dogs are a threat to kids. The taxpayers have to pay to have the dogs removed/rehomed/vetted/rescued, so we have a say in what happens. Until they treat dogs with respect, I am boycotting visiting Navajo Nation.

Posted by DogsHaveFeelings on January 2, 2013 at 9:19 PM