Black Lab Puppy Escapes from Torture by Hoopa Tribal Police Dispatcher on September 11!

 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.