Navajo animal group offers music, dinner for critters

Before and After photos of "Scruffy" rescued by The Blackhat Humane Society "Scruffy" before

"Scruffy" after

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth
Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — The Blackhat Humane Society is offering animal lovers a way to alleviate the suffering of stray dogs and cats on the Navajo Nation.

Area residents are invited to attend a Blackhat benefit event, “A Cause for The Paws,” featuring dinner and live music at Iggy’s Restaurant in St. Johns, Ariz., from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 27. The Chainsaw Bears, a band from Chinle, will provide acoustic bluegrass/folk music for the event. The dinner menu will include spaghetti with meat or vegetarian sauce, salad, garlic bread, and iced tea or soda. Alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase. Tickets are $25 ($20 for BHS members) or $10 for just the music. Reservations must be made by Sept. 20.

“Iggy’s is a new restaurant in St. Johns,” said Tamara Martin, president of the nonprofit organization. Both the restaurant and the band have ties to Blackhat’s efforts to rescue and rehabilitate stray animals from the reservation, Martin said. Owner Karen Hansen named her restaurant after her pet llama, Ignatius, and Hansen’s sister has adopted a Blackhat dog. Three Chainsaw Bears band members have adopted Blackhat dogs, Martin added, and one of the band members has fostered rescued Blackhat dogs for years.

Martin, a former nurse who used to work on the reservation in Ganado now oversees the organization’s newsletter and Web site from her home in St. Johns. According to Martin, the Blackhat Humane Society was formed by a group of individuals on the Navajo Nation who had been rescuing stray animals on their own. They joined forces and established the BHS in 2001 with the purpose of rescuing, rehabilitating, and adopting out abandoned animals from the reservation.

“We’ve rescued about 400 animals a year since then,” Martin said.

Blackhat is unique in that is does not have — and does not want — a shelter facility. Instead, Martin explained,

Blackhat volunteers work with veterinarian clinics to spay, neuter, and vaccinate the animals and place them in foster homes until they can be matched with an adoptive family.
“We believe foster homes are the best way to create a socialized animal,” Martin said, explaining fostered stray animals learn to live in a home setting with children and other animals. Individuals who provide foster homes for the animals then help match the animals to a compatible adoptive home.

“We have about 20 foster homes at any given time,” Martin said. “There wouldn’t be a Blackhat without our foster homes,” she added.

In addition, BHS operates an online pet finder Web site, helps sponsor spay and neuter clinics, and arranges for the transportation of rescued animals to off-reservation adoptive homes. The adoption fee is $50 per pet.

“Pretty much 99 percent go off the reservation,” she said. “People that live on the reservation are up to their ears in strays.” Almost all of the rescued animals are rehabilitated and adopted, she said, with just a small percentage euthanized due to disease or extreme aggression. Martin cited the reservation’s high poverty rate and lack of spay and neutering resources as two major factors that contribute to the chronic stray animal population.

Martin encouraged area residents to attend “A Cause for The Paws” to “celebrate the rescue of animals.” For those unable to attend, Blackhat welcomes donations of money, blankets, pet food, dog houses, crates, toys, collars, and leashes. It also welcomes the addition of new foster homes for rescued pets.

Information: Tamara Martin at (928) 337-2828 or www.rezdog.petfinder.com; Blackhat Humane Society, P.O. Box 1622, St. Johns, AZ 85936