Navajo Nation sparring with celebrities, politicians over slaughtering of horses

When actor and activist Robert Redford and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson joined the fight to stop horse slaughter plants from opening in New Mexico and Iowa they thought they would have Native Americans on their side, but the Navajo Nation, the country’s largest federally recognized tribe, are on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to the controversial issue, Fernanda Santos reports for The New York Times. (NYT photo by Diego James Robles: Wild horses in New Mexico)

Last week, Redford and Richardson joined animal rights groups in a lawsuit to stop the two plants from opening. A judge blocked the slaughterhouses from temporarily opening, but the groups were ordered to pay a $500,000 bond to cover the companies’ costs and lost profits for the next 30 days, if the animal rights groups lose the case. The Navajo Nation sent a letter to Congress in favor of opening the slaughterhouses.

Ben Shelly, the Navajo president, told Santos that free-roaming horses cost the Navajos $200,000 a year in damage to property and range. He said there is a gap between reality and romance when “outsiders” like Mr. Redford — who counts gunslinger, sheriff’s deputy and horse whisperer among his movie roles — interpret the struggles of American Indians. Shelly told Santos, “Maybe Robert Redford can come and see what he can do to help us out. I’m ready to go in the direction to keep the horses alive and give them to somebody else, but right now the best alternative is having some sort of slaughter facility to come and do it.”

In Navajo territory, "parched by years of unrelenting drought and beset by poverty, one feral horse consumes 5 gallons of water and 18 pounds of forage a day — sometimes the water and food a family had bought for itself and its cattle," Santos writes. "According to the latest estimates, there are 75,000 feral and wild horses in the nation, and the numbers are growing, Mr. Shelly said." (Read more)