I write a monthly church article for the St. Alban's Newsletter "Tidings." This is the article for October. I have to share this story here too, because what happened is so cruel and unjust. People need to know what is really going on, and that this abuse doesn't stop with just the animals.
The Other Side of the
Mountain
by Heather Hobson
Lewis
I had a
church article all written for this month, but an incident occurred this week
that demands attention and has absorbed my thoughts and heart. This article
shall run longer then my others and may disturb some.
Most of you
know I teach on the Hoopa Valley Indian reservation. The reservation has its
own set of laws and is not under the jurisdiction of the Humboldt County
Sheriff’s Office. The reservation is not
bound by most of California’s
state laws. They follow their own created Tribal Law that as I have observed
tends to favor those in power. That is why state taxes are not charged at
reservation gas stations, and that is why we have been told by the Sheriff’s
Office can’t assist in the following case.
On the
Hoopa reservation live many stray dogs.
Dogs there are rarely fixed and allowed to roam. Other dogs are dumped along the river when
owners from the city decide they no longer want them. This adds to the
population. Rex is one of these dogs.
Rex is
about one year old and a black lab.
About three weeks ago he started visiting the elementary school. Rex
would arrive about the same time as the students and make his rounds. He greeted everyone with a dog grin and a
tail wag. He allowed the kids to play roughly, even kick him, and he never
harmed anyone.
 |
| facial bullet wound on muzzle |
Then on
September 11 that all changed. Someone called the Hoopa Tribal Police.
According to the police the caller said the dog had bit someone, but that
someone can’t be found, and there is no verification of this happening. The dispatcher was sent to pick Rex up. Later Rex returned to the school, his safe
place. He had two gun shot wounds through his jaw. His lower jaw was shattered and most of his
lower teeth knocked out. His tongue had
almost been completely severed. He had a
shot near his anus that exited out his side leg. Bullet graze wounds ran along his back and
his legs.
As a
teacher rushed Rex to Sunny
Brae Medical
Center the story began to
unfold. Rex had been taken off by the dispatcher to a wooded area. There had been shot at with a hand gun in
what appears to be a target practice torture session. This is a break away from
past practices where dogs that bit someone were to be quarantined for ten days
observation.
 |
| bullet entry |
How Rex managed
to escape we will never know, but he did.
This is not
the first incident of dog torture on the reservation. Several people have confided to me stories of
animal torture by the Tribal Police going back as far as twenty years.
What makes
this even more disturbing is there is an animal rescue group on the reservation
only about a mile from the school. They are called the Greater Rural Rescue or
GRR. They would have taken Rex.
 |
| bullet exit |
I also find
it amazing that a tribe that has received a Federal settlement of over $20
million dollars, with $16,000 ear marked for each tribal member, can’t afford
$50 to drive a dog 10 miles to Willow Creek to a veterinarian to have a dog
euthanized properly.
I and many
others who work and/or live in Hoopa are disturbed by this. I have been left
filled with anger, disgust, and rage. I want justice for Rex and for all that
have suffered before him.
 |
| graze wound from bullet |
At this
point, as I know some of you must have felt at some point in your life too, I
question if I want to be Christian. I don’t want to forgive this injustice,
though I know that is what is expected of me as a Christian. I don’t want to love “my neighbors as myself”
if these are the type of neighbors I have.
All I want is justice and safety for the animals.
Pray for
Rex. Pray for me. Pray for the Hoopa
people. We all need it.
P.S. The doctor was able to reattach Rex’s tongue. He is now healing in a safe foster home.
