{"id":39669,"date":"2024-08-12T10:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T14:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=39669"},"modified":"2024-08-12T10:58:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T14:58:21","slug":"grist-rez-dogs-are-feeling-the-heat-from-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/08\/12\/grist-rez-dogs-are-feeling-the-heat-from-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Grist: Rez dogs are feeling the heat from climate change"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Rez<\/a>
A dog on the Navajo Nation. Photo: iStock \/ Getty Images Plus<\/figcaption>\r\n
Rez dogs are feeling the heat from climate change<\/div>\r\n
A lack of infrastructure and extreme weather are putting unhoused pets on reservations in danger.<\/div>\r\n
Monday, August 12, 2024<\/div>\r\n
By Taylar Dawn Stagner, Grist<\/div>\r\n
grist.org<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n This story was originally published by Grist<\/a>. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \r\nJulie Cassadore was stunned when the wildfire ripped through the San Carlos Apache Reservation this July. \u201cThe whole downtown was on fire,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just huge, huge, huge clouds of black smoke, and you could hear what sounded like propane tanks exploding. I saw people running with their children.\u201d\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s when the calls began.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCassadore is San Carlos Apache and the founder of Geronimo Animal Rescue Team<\/a>, a nonprofit animal care and adoption organization on the reservation. As the Watch Fire<\/a> burned around 2,000 acres and destroyed 20 homes<\/a>, Cassadore\u2019s team began a long night of rescues.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cWe were driving around burnt dogs with their burnt paws,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were doing that all night.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut San Carlos doesn\u2019t have an animal shelter of its own, so Cassadore has worked hard the last month to find safe homes for the 20 animals rescued that night.\u00a0\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Watch Fire began with arson, but high temperatures and drier conditions driven by climate change exacerbated the blaze. As global temperatures rise and events like wildfires become more extreme, the stakes are rising for Indigenous communities and their animals. A lack of animal shelters and foster homes are driving higher euthanasia rates while intense heat puts dogs and cats without homes in serious danger. Between the nationwide shortage of veterinarians<\/a>, underfunded infrastructure in Indigenous communities, and an increase in the animals in need of care, climate change is impacting the beloved \u201crez dog\u201d in a myriad of ways.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMuch of the problem has roots in the COVID-19 outbreak<\/a>. In 2020, as the virus spread and lockdowns were put in place, animal spay and neuter clinics across the country were shut down. On the Leech Lake Reservation, for instance, puppy season used to generally begin in the spring. Now, it lasts nearly all year. \u201cPuppy season has been going on on the reservation for over two years now, and in 15 years of doing this I have never seen it like this,\u201d said Jennifer Fitzer of Leech Lake Legacy<\/a>, an animal rescue organization on the Reservation.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cPre-pandemic I had easily 20 spots every weekend,\u201d said Fitzer. Now, she says, it\u2019s difficult to find places for even one dog. \u201cIt is a very, very, very hard time in animal rescue right now.\u201d\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFitzer adds that with summers getting hotter, she\u2019s seeing more and more animals suffering from dehydration.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNorman Begay is Din\u00e9 and the animal control program manager on the Navajo Nation. He said that his office gets calls for about 20 dogs a day, and estimates that there are around 180,000 unhoused dogs on the reservation. His office only has 12 officers and no adoption program to keep animals long term. \u201cIt\u2019s a liability,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of these dogs are dangerous.\u201d In 2021 a 13-year-old girl on the reservation was killed by a pack of dogs.<\/a>\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOf the animals that are picked up on Navajo Nation, heat is still an issue. \u201cIf it\u2019s too hot out, we can\u2019t have dog walkers take them out in the middle of the day,\u201d said Stacie Voss, shelter manager at the Farmington Animal Shelter<\/a> in New Mexico, a two-hour drive away from Navajo Nation. She said summer is their busy season and that 15 percent of their intake comes from the Navajo Nation.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThere are no statistics on how many unhoused animals live in Indigenous communities, but the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that 6.5 million dogs and cats entered U.S. shelters in 2023. Only 4.8 million were adopted.\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cShelters across the country are more crowded,\u201d wrote Partners with Native Americans<\/a>, a nonprofit that provides funding for animal care in tribal communities. \u201cIt has become more difficult to relocate dogs to off-reservation shelters for adoption.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBecause euthanasia rates increase exponentially<\/a> in areas without accessible spay or neuter clinics, tribes have been working to curb animal populations in creative ways. On the Wind River Reservation, the Northern Arapaho Tribe converted a mobile COVID testing vehicle into a mobile spay and neuter clinic<\/a> to help deal with the unhoused animal population, while the Partnership with Native Americans<\/a>, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to Indigenous communities, has committed to investing $100,000 a year for tribal spay and neuter clinics, foster homes, and education efforts to support the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, Navajo Nation, White Mountain Apache Reservation, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The Humane Society of Western Montana<\/a> has partnered with the Blackfeet Nation, Chippewa Cree Tribe, and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribe to provide spay and neuter clinics, vaccines, and adoption help.\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA few years ago, Julie Cassadore, from San Carlos Apache, said nearby shelters wouldn\u2019t take animals from her reservation due to discrimination. \u201cBottom line, you aren\u2019t helping us because we are Apaches,\u201d she recalls telling a nearby shelter that refused to take dogs from San Carlos.\u00a0

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut that moment inspired her to start the Geronimo Animal Rescue Team, and this year, she won the More Than A Pet Community Hero Award<\/a> from the Humane Society<\/a>, with the help of her all-Apache volunteer team. Now, she has support from the San Carlos Tribal Council to build an animal shelter on the reservation \u2014 a step that Cassadore said will help more animals as the days get hotter.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cPeople can come and be able to foster and adopt our dogs, instead of us having to take them off the reservation,\u201d she said. \u201cWe hope for that to happen.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\r\n Correction: <\/strong>This story previously misspelled Din\u00e9, and incorrectly stated the location of Farmington Animal Shelter.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\r\n This article originally appeared in Grist<\/a> at https:\/\/grist.org\/indigenous\/rez-dogs-are-feeling-the-heat-from-climate-change\/<\/a>.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n \r\n Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org<\/a>.\r\n

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