Nearly 200 free-roaming horses died searching for water on Navajos’ parched land
Nearly 200 feral horses, besieged by famine and dehydration, were found dead on a dried-up stock pond on Navajo land in Arizona.
The animals went to the pond in Gray Mountain, an unincorporated community in Coconino County in north-central Arizona, in search of water. But they somehow found themselves burrowed into the mud and too weak to escape, said Jonathan Nez, vice president of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American tribe in the country. Most of the Navajo live in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Some of the 191 horses were buried neck-deep in the mud, Navajo officials said. Some were buried beneath others. Pictures show the horses’ overlapping bodies, arranged roughly in a circle on the parched earth.
The mass deaths come as Arizona experiences a drought unlike anything it has seen in more than a decade. Navajo officials say horses dying near an empty watering pond is “not a new but a seasonal issue.”
The deaths also underscore an overpopulation of free-roaming horses, a problem entangled in competing interests, scarcity of resources and Navajo cultural values.
About 73,000 horses and burros roam free in the western United States; that number has far exceeded what government officials say the land can sustain. With such overpopulation, having herds of free-roaming horses has become expensive. Damage the animals cause cost the Navajo Nation more than $200,000 a year. According to the Navajo Department of Agriculture, one horse consumes 18 pounds of forage a day. Removing as many as 13 dozen horses would save the Navajo Nation more than 290,000 gallons of water and 1.1 million pounds of forage a year.
But the issue has been a divisive one.
The Navajo tribe reveres horses, which have become symbols of the American West and are deeply entrenched in the Navajo people’s beliefs and traditions.
“It’s a sensitive subject to begin with because horses are considered sacred animals, so you just can’t go out and euthanize them. That would go too far against cultural conditions,” former Navajo spokesman Erny Zah told the Associated Press. “At the same time, we have a bunch of horses no one is caring for, so it’s a delicate balance,”
In 1971, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act gave the animals federal protections while allowing the interior secretary to sell or euthanize older and unadoptable animals. But for much of the past three decades, Congress has used riders on annual appropriations bills to prohibit the killing of healthy animals and any “sale that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products,” The Washington Post’s Karin Brulliard reported.
Navajo leaders have faced resistance in the past when they tried to find ways to control the population.
In 2013, Navajo leaders drafted a letter to federal officials expressing their support for slaughtering horses for export. But former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, actor Robert Redford and animal rights groups joined in a federal lawsuit to block the revival of horse slaughtering in the country.
Last month, congressional leaders rejected a proposal to allow the culling of tens of thousands of horses and burros that roam the West or are held in government-funded corrals and ranches, Brulliard reported. Supporters of the proposal described it as “humane euthanization.” Animal advocacy groups applauded Congress’s decision.
The animals that were found dead in the Arizona watering pond will be buried on site, Navajo officials said.
One horse did survive. Gracie, only two to three weeks old, was found among the carcasses, according to the Coconino Humane Association. She is recovering in a hospital, but her kidneys are not functioning well.
This Thursday, May 3, 2018 photo shows skeletal remains of animals in a ravine adjacent to a watering hole where dozens of horses were discovered dead near Cameron, Ariz. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
FILE – In this Tuesday, May 1, 2018 file photo provided by the Navajo Nation, scores of dead horses are shown in a dried up stock pond on Navajo tribal land near Cameron, Ariz. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (Mihio Manus/Navajo Nation via AP, File)
This Thursday, May 3, 2018 photo shows dozens of horse carcasses lying in a dry watering hole now surrounded by a barbed wire fence near Cameron, Ariz. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
This Thursday, May 3, 2018 photo shows dozens of horse carcasses lying in a dry watering near Cameron, Ariz. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
In this Thursday, May 3, 2018 photo,Erin Hisrich, owner of Aspen Veterinary Clinic in Flagstaff, Ariz., plays with a foal that nearly died from dehydration. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
In this Thursday, May 3, 2018 photo,Erin Hisrich, owner of Aspen Veterinary Clinic in Flagstaff, Ariz., attempts to bottle feed a foal that nearly died from dehydration. A couple of miles off the highway through northern Arizona is one of the most stark examples of the toll drought has taken on the region: more than 100 dead horses surrounding by cracked dirt, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn’t quench their thirst. Officials on the Navajo Nation are working to cover the site with lime to help the animals decompose and keep away scavengers. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)