Beth Lamberson Warren plays with her rescue dogs, Boo Radley and Scout, at the Dog Park on Tuesday. Boo was rescued by Blackhat Humane Society as a scraggly 8-week pup near Chinle. He was put in a foster home in Durango where Lamberson Warren met him and raised the $1,500 he needed for leg surgery. She later ended up adopting him./Photo by Steve Eginoire

A new leash on life

Blackhat Humane Society works to stem rez dog overpopulation

by Jen Reeder

When Durango resident Beth Lamberson Warren rescued her dog Scout, it was straightforward: she saw the little stray running on the side of the road near Kayenta, picked him up and brought him home. But last year when she adopted her dog, Boo Radley, 14 people had been involved in the puppy’s rescue, not including veterinarians.

“He had three names by the time he got to me,” Warren said. “I was his fourth foster home.”

The little black and white pooch’s journey to Durango started when he was a skinny 8-week-old puppy spotted at a gas station near Chinle, Ariz. A family driving to the Grand Canyon fed him some kibble and called Blackhat Humane Society, a nonprofit rescue organization for animals on the Navajo Reservation (Blackhat is unaffiliated with the Humane Society of the United States). A Blackhat volunteer brought the puppy home, bathed him and then drove him to Shiprock, N.M. It was clear he would need surgery on his back right leg; his femur had popped out of its hip socket. Warren met Boo when he was being fostered in Durango and stepped in to raise more than $1,500 for surgery that prevented his leg from being amputated.

Just the Facts What: Blackhat Humane Society adoptathon When: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sat., March 15 Where: Petsense, 1185 S. Camino Del Rio (near Wal-Mart)

“The day I took him in for surgery, I just said, ‘I can’t bring this little guy home, rehab him and hand him off to somebody. That’s not fair to him and he’s really kind of wheedled his way into my heart,’” Warren said.

Now Boo Radley has grown from 22 pounds to 63 pounds and loves swimming, competing with Warren’s human children for attention, and playing with Scout. Warren is grateful to all the volunteers who helped rescue her pup and is sure the initial phone call to Blackhat saved his life.

“If you see something, do something,” she said. “You can call Blackhat.”

Blackhat Humane Society, founded in 2000, works tirelessly to address the issue of pet homelessness and overpopulation on the reservation, despite being composed entirely of volunteers. Michaela Brady, secretary and acting president of Blackhat, said the Navajo Nation – which covers more than 27,000 square miles across three states – has more than 200,000 stray cats, dogs and horses. Part of the problem is the lack of spay/neuter services; there are very few veterinarians on the reservation, and it’s not typically part of the Navajo culture. The other major component is poverty.

“It’s poverty – typical issues you see anywhere, whether it’s inner city or out in the middle of nowhere like we are,” Brady said. “When it comes to feeding your family or getting your dog fixed, a lot of people are obviously going to pick feeding their family.”

Blackhat doesn’t have a physical shelter but instead a network of volunteers spreads across the Four Corners. When stray dogs and cats are found – typically at gas stations or other populated areas where they might have a better chance of survival – the team starts organizing a response, which involves immediate vaccination and deworming. The animals are then transported to animal shelters or foster families that feed, socialize, housebreak and train them. In addition, Blackhat hosts spay/neuter clinics with Denver-based Soul Dog Rescue throughout the reservation, raises money for emergency medical care and holds adoption events throughout the region.  The next Durango adopt-a-thon takes place Sat., March 15, at Petsense, near Wal-Mart, from10 a.m. – 5 p.m. 

“Usually, we get a lot of puppies, and we get a lot of kittens,” Brady says. “I would say the majority of the animals that are surrendered and we catch are between the ages of 8 weeks and a year.”

Because Blackhat is always in need of more foster homes, the group is raising money to build fences for interested people on the Navajo Reservation. That way, fosters who can currently only keep dogs and cats indoors will have a yard to accommodate more animals.

Thurston Tsosie, a member of the Navajo Tribe who lives on the reservation in Smoke Signal, Ariz., started volunteering with Blackhat several years ago after rescuing a sick and malnourished dog named Ella. She was eating trash near a dumpster, something that often gets a dog shot and killed. Tsosie nursed Ella back to health, treating her mange and feeding her three times a day.

A vet and a volunteer with Blackhat work on a rescued dog. According to Blackhat, the Navajo Nation has more than 200,000 stray animals. /Courtesy photo

“I joined the Blackhat program because I wanted to help other animals like Ella,” he said. “They do that daily.”

Tsosie and his aunt have rescued more than 100 animals for Blackhat – he even pays workers to help catch feral cats and dogs. He can get angry with the amount of abandonment and abuse he sees, and is researching how to enact legislation that would make such behavior illegal on the reservation. In recent times, attitudes have changed from the traditional view of dogs as protectors.

He also hopes spaying and neutering pets becomes more common. There are two feral dogs he’s tried to catch for several years, but they have eluded capture and keep breeding. So he keeps rescuing their puppies.

Despite the frustrations, Tsosie continues his efforts because it’s rewarding when animals find the loving homes they deserve.

“The most loyal dog is a rez dog, I think, because they’ve been through so much,” he said.

Durango resident and Blackhat volunteer Nicole Otten is currently fostering two puppies that Tsosie rescued – part of a litter of nine found in a hole. Because Otten bartends at BREW and is studying at Fort Lewis College, she thought it would be irresponsible to permanently adopt any more pets than her rez dog, Nivea. So she fosters to get her “puppy fix.”

“I think with these dogs, it’s just the simple things that they love, being touched or taken for a walk,” Otten said. “You treat them like family until they’re part of someone else’s family.”

Their forever families are inevitably grateful to Blackhat volunteers. Pagosa Springs resident Mellane Davies said it was a “pleasure” working with Blackhat when she and her husband wanted to adopt a puppy as the Christmas present for their three children. Blackhat’s Brady answered many questions about Frankincense, a formerly emaciated 6-month-old yellow Lab mix who had followed some students to school on a bake sale day. Brady worked to get him neutered, vaccinated and transported to Durango before Christmas.

“She helped us pull off the whole surprise,” Davies said, adding, “He’s the perfect dog for us.” Her 12-year-old daughter, Katriel, agrees. She said Frankincense loves to tunnel in the snow and play. She thinks other people should adopt dogs from Blackhat “because they’re so cute … and they really enjoy having a home.”

Many animals desperately need homes. Each year, 2.7 million “healthy, adoptable” dogs and cats are euthanized in American shelters – about one every 11 seconds – according to the Humane Society of the United States. So adopting dogs from rescue groups instead of buying them from breeders saves lives, said Maggie Gruschow, Blackhat’s treasurer.

“By adopting rescue animals, you’re benefiting not only that individual animal – because you’ve certainly changed the life of that animal – but it’s looking at the population problem as a whole and helping correct that,” Gruschow said.

In addition to curbing overpopulation, Gruschow said spaying and neutering pets also has the advantage of decreasing behavioral problems like marking or aggression. She said the transformation she’s seen in rescued animals is remarkable.

“It’s just amazing how far some of these animals have come from their beginnings,” she said. “Every adoption is a happy day.”

For more information, visit www.petfinder.com/shelters/ rezdog.html. To see Blackhat’s most current pets available for adoption, visit www.facebook.com/blackhathumane. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to P.O. Box 3123, Durango, CO  81302. For volunteer opportunities, call 724-355-9053 or email blackhathumane@gmail.com.