Dogs on Indigenous reservations in our region are feeling the heat. Shelters are at capacity, especially on reservations with underfunded infrastructure. And climate change is compounding the problem.
When a wildfire burned through the San Carlos Apache Reservation earlier this summer, a rescue team drove around all night picking up dogs with burnt paws.
“So they had to makeshift a shelter, which is really rough to do, especially when, you know, the world's on fire,” said Taylar Dawn Stagner, who recently reported on the issue for Grist, a climate-focused publication.
She has been investigating the impact of rising temperatures and more extreme fires, and said reservation dogs — despite being known as resilient — are having a hard time finding water because of climate change.
“It's getting to the point where, I mean, if creeks and places are drying up, like any other animal, [dogs are] having a hard time finding resources,” Stagner said.
Plus, there’s more dogs now because spay and neuter clinics shut down during the pandemic.
An animal control manager on the Navajo Nation told Stagner that his office gets calls for about 20 dogs a day, and estimates that there are around 180,000 unhoused dogs on the reservation.
To address this, a nonprofit called Partnership with Native Americans is putting $100,000 a year into vet clinics and foster homes on reservations, including the Navajo Nation.
Stagner said the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation also opened a mobile spay and neuter clinic using a former COVID-19 testing vehicle.
“It was very encouraging to see and to talk to so many people who have such a dedication to this work,” Stagner said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
