Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said "outsiders" don't understand why the tribe supports permits for horse slaughtering facilities.
An estimated 75,000 feral and wild horses roam the reservation, consuming scarce resources, including water and crops. Putting them to slaughter is one way of addressing the issue, Shelly said.
"I’m ready to go in the direction to keep the horses alive and give them to somebody else, but right now the best alternative is having some sort of slaughter facility to come and do it," Shelly told The New York Times.
The tribe isn't the only one in Indian Country that feels the same way.
The
National Congress of American
Indians, the Mescalero Apache Nation of New Mexico, the
Oglala Sioux Tribe of
South Dakota and the
Yakama Nation of
Washington all support the issuance of permits for horse slaughter facilities.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe has even considered opening its own facility, The Bennett County Booster reported in April.
A lawsuit in federal court has prevented two facilities, one in New Mexico and the other in Iowa, from opening. Animal rights groups sued the
Department of Agriculture for issuing the permits and some individual tribal members -- including
Chief
Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo
Pipe -- are opposed to horse slaughtering.
Get the Story:
On Fate of Wild Horses, Stars and Indians Spar
(The New York Times 8/11)
Related Stories:
Judge requires bond of nearly $500K in horse
slaughter lawsuit (8/9)
Editorial: Umatilla Tribes
call for help with abandoned horses (8/6)
Judge temporarily blocks opening of horse slaughter
plants (8/5)
Horse slaughtering plant
draws interest from Indian Country (8/2)
NCAI, Navajo Nation back controversial horse
slaughter plant (8/1)
USDA sued over
permits issued to horse slaughtering plants (7/23)
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