McKinley County’s animal shelters are full

When COVID-19 swept across the country, doors slammed shut and people stayed home. So many people in the American northeast were adopting pets that states with crowded shelters were able to transport animals to almost certain adoption elsewhere.

Also during that time, veterinarians across New Mexico, Arizona, and the Navajo Reservation were sidelined, leaving local pet adopters and owners with nowhere to turn for their furkids’ vaccinations and spay or neuter surgeries.

Then humans’ lives slowly went back to something like the old normal. People returned to worksites, and pandemic aid money has been drying up. Stubborn inflation has made things worse: ABC News reported pet food prices are up 12% in the last year alone. Suddenly, a lot of people found they no longer had the time or resources to have a pet.

Owner surrenders, pet abandonments, and animal abuse cases went up while adoptions went down. Pet abandonment has gone up, leading to starved animals and more aggressive animals that become a public safety issue, McKinley County Humane Society Executive Director Amariss Lujan said.

The result is a sort of pet pandemic, an overpopulation hangover from the human event. It touches everyone in the community: even County Manager Anthony Dimas, who went out one recent morning to find a puppy abandoned on his home’s deck.

Nowadays, the Gallup Animal Control and McKinley County Humane Society shelters are packed beyond capacity, with 320 animals between them in kennel space meant to top out at 190. About 50 are cats and kittens, the rest are dogs and puppies.

“There’s no other room. Everything is full. They are stuck in every nook and cranny possible,” Animal Protection Manager Tiffany Hubbard said.

Hubbard said that Animal Protection has added more runs outside to create extra space, but even those are full. Animal Protection hasn’t been able to pick up any stray animals because there’s nowhere to put them.

Aggressive and sick animals must be put to sleep for public safety. Aggressive dogs are unadoptable and the shelter doesn’t have the ability to treat sick animals, so trying to care for them would risk infecting healthy animals.

The shelters have had to stop taking owner surrenders as well. Next, they may have to start euthanizing potentially adoptable animals only because there’s no place to put them, a heartbreaking step the organizations strive to never have to take.

“It takes a piece of you away every time you have to do it,” Hubbard said. “It’s something we don’t take lightly, the ones of us that have to make that decision. That’s one thing that the public doesn’t understand, … [we’re] the ones that have to look ourselves in the mirror because we’re the ones that have to make the decisions and it sucks.”

The situation ratchets up stress for the animals and the workers. Fully staffed, Hubbard has four animal control officers (right now it’s only three) to respond to calls from all over the county. They respond to calls from animal abuse to dangerous and sick animals to strays. That spreads them thin and may lengthen response times. Residents don’t understand how few people there are to answer their calls and wonder why it takes so long.

Additionally, Animal Control officers are legally barred from doing their job on Native reservations and checkerboard areas. They are only allowed to answer calls within city and county boundaries, and still the shelter is overloaded.

HOW TO HELP

All is not lost, and residents can help save animals’ lives by stepping up to be pet foster parents.

With fostering, people can take  in an unclaimed animal from the shelter. The shelter pays for the pet’s food and provides medical care and necessities like kitty litter and even doghouses where needed. (The shelter also offers low-cost vaccinations and microchipping by appointment for area pet owners.)

That means fostering can be a good option for senior citizens who want the companionship of a pet but are on a tight budget and/or fear leaving behind a pet that outlives them. Fostering is meant to be short term, so it also means foster people need not give up vacations or family visits.

People may choose to foster a puppy, kitten or an adult animal. Shelter workers have spent time with them and can help match personalities. The shelters will look for forever homes or transport opportunities for the pet and when that happens, the foster parent  gives it up.

McKinley County residents with stable homes and, for those who foster dogs, a secure fenced yard, are eligible to foster. If a potential dog foster parent has other dogs, they must bring them to meet the prospective foster dog to make sure they can get along. Foster cats are required to be kept indoors to prevent roaming.

Right now, a home that can foster a pet is probably saving a life. If enough people do it, it could take pressure off the shelters and their staff.

Foster applications are available on the Humane Society website, https://mckinleyhumane.org. To find out more, call (505) 863-2616.

By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent

Women lead the way at the ceremonial

When the 101^st Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial rolls into town Aug. 9, women will be out front, showcasing their skills, strength and traditions.

“We’re pretty proud to have a big female representation this year,” Ceremonial Association President Kyle Tom said.

The Saturday morning parade will feature Grand Marshal Rep. D. Wonda Johnson,  who carried a bill in the Legislature to disband the Intertribal Ceremonial Office and return the Ceremonial to local control. While the state ICO came with a bigger budget, locals felt the event‘s old school flavor suffered and at times caused confusion. Winning back control was key to returning the event to its roots.

“That was always tricky in the community, saying ‘We’ve got to talk to Santa Fe,’ or ‘They’re running this event so we don’t know anything about it.’ This year it’s pretty definite,” Tom said.

The association reconstituted its board with some returning members and a few new ones.

“We got the band back together,” Tom said. “When we were informed ICO would be dissolved, we had to put a board together. We went back to who we had in the past.”

After last year’s close call with an alleged drunk driver, visitors can expect tight security on the parade route, with representation from the Gallup Police Department, McKinley County Sheriff’s Department, New Mexico State Police, Office of Emergency Management and Department of Transportation.

Demonstrations and the art show and sale will again be under the direction of Joyce Graves, who’s earned her stripes with years of service managing the exhibit hall and the platoon of volunteers that makes the art show possible. She’s been cultivating younger artists over the last year, working with the Gallup McKinley County Schools art show, and hopes to see the benefits in August.

“One of the exciting things is we are hoping to have a lot more youth entries,” Graves said. “I sent the pages of the youth categories with the teachers so they could help students enter. I’m hoping we will see a big push from that.”

Volunteers are welcome to step up before the show to help with setup and check in Aug. 4 and 5, work the exhibit hall during the show and do behind-the-scenes tasks that make the show a success. They’ll also help with checkout after the show.

Master basket weaver Sally Black, from Kayenta, will be honored as this year’s Living Treasure. True to her role, she’ll also be demonstrating her basket weaving prowess in the exhibit hall during the event. Other demonstrators will include Hopi artisans basket weaver Marvine and woodcarver Nuvadi Gawahoya.

This year’s poster artist is rising star Penelope Joe, who won her first art award at the Ceremonial when she was 12. Her Navajo Prayer Woman painting is a reminder to keep traditions alive across generations. Joe is also an eager participant in the Song and Dance events.

INTER-TRIBAL INDIAN CEREMONIAL QUEEN PAGEANT

One person working to preserve and share tradition is Fleurette Brown, returning to run the Miss Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Queen pageant. She was on the pageant team for a few years before the state waded in a couple of years ago, and was a judge last year. She stepped up to take charge once the ICO exit was a sure thing.

“This year it was kind of all of a sudden in March. I work but I wasn’t going to let this not get done,” Brown said.

Brown was crowned as the 1998-1999 Queen, so she knows the difference it can make in a young woman’s life.

“When you crown a new queen, she will come back in a year with massive growth in confidence,” Brown said. “When they come back to give up their crown, they are a totally different person. It is growth that is so obvious.”

Contestants will be judged on essays detailing how they envision themselves as an ambassador for Native peoples and for the ceremonial, interviews, personality photos, public speaking, traditional talent, and a traditional food competition including a preparation video and tasting.

The personality photo replaces the Miss Photogenic beauty shots of old with photos of the contestants doing what’s important to them, whether it’s work, a hobby or skill.

The traditional food element, started last year, has two parts: contestants must create a video or photo collage of themselves making the dish at home, then provide a finished dish for judges to taste.

Autumn Montoya, who was Miss Navajo Nation for the 2018-2019 year, is running the Little Miss Ceremonial and Tiny Tot pageants with help from last year’s Queen, Cajaun Cleveland.

Visitors may attend the Friday Night Showcase at El Morro Theatre to see the contestants and emcee comedian Lainey Pablo. Dieon Hazy, an up-and-coming artist from Shiprock, will provide acoustic music during intermission. Tickets are $10 at the door.

The Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial wil take place Aug. 4-Aug. 13.

By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 142 minutes

Another Young Adult book-to-film series is set to come to a close this week with Maze Runner: The Death Cure. You’ll be forgiven for having forgotten about the previous features; it has been nearly two and a half years since the last installment in the franchise (due to a horrible on-set accident in 2016 early into the production that put its star out of commission for several months). This finale arrives chock full of action and explosions, although from a story perspective this feels like both a blessing and a curse.

This chapter resumes with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) having long escaped the mazes, survived travel across a sun-battered, dystopian world ravaged by a zombie-like virus and joining a revolutionary faction. He vows to bring down the sinister organization WCKD, run by scientist Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and official Janson (Aiden Gillen). In doing so, he hopes to free fellow maze runner Minho (Ki Hong Lee) who is having his antibodies harvested to be used for a proposed cure.

This film dispenses with talk from the onset and is all about physical conflict. In fact, for a casual viewer it’s hard to catch up with who is who and the details of the story. The movie opens with an elaborate train chase, with the heroes attempting to free a group of hostage children with natural immunity to the disease. The action itself is well-handled, with the hero jumping onto the train and avoiding gunfire from soldiers and flying warplanes. It’s an impressive opening sure to wow fans of the series.

Along the way, there are further stunts as the protagonists make their way towards a walled-in city housing members of the WCKD team. As expected, they end up storming the castle (or in this case, labs), leading to more violence, chaos and stunts. This involves a bus full of kids being lifted by a crane over the downtown area while being pursued. Once again, star O’Brien trades fisticuffs with the sinister Janson and the throw-down looks rough and convincing.

However, for all of its blasts and detonations, one could really have done with more time spent reintroducing the characters and reminding us about who they are and why their plight is important. Instead, there are scant few moments between the blasts, with persons simply delivering basic exposition about what they need to do to stop WCKD. Gillan makes for an intimidating foe, but he’s so sinister that even his nefarious snarls start to get old.

As battle after battle unfolds and the invasion begins, the action itself really becomes tiresome and drawn out. The movie runs over two hours and twenty minutes, and it doesn’t need to. Sure, this is the big finale and it’s important for the kids to be in over their heads. Still, this viewer got worn-out watching the characters struggle and stumble their way past to rescue points. The final hour seems like nothing but an extended skirmish, with the characters drawn into more unnecessary side trips to make their way to the same destination.

That all being said, it’s impressive to see the makers of this series try to go out on a bang. Maze Runner: The Death Cure will certainly appeal to many within its target demographic thanks to its not-stop barrage of action. It certainly provides a definite close for those following the series. Yet for this viewer, one could have done with fewer explosions and more conversations to get its central themes across.

Visit: Cinemastance.com

By Glenn Kay

For the Sun

Charity haircuts, meals served to those in need

There’s nothing like a home-cooked meal and a fresh haircut on a day when temperatures barely exceed 50-degrees.

At Gallup’s Ho’zho Wellness Center for Personal Enhancement, about a dozen homeless folks could attest to that Jan. 27, having gobbled up beef stew and pastries, water and gotten their hair sheared by barbers and hair stylists.

The haircuts, done by a handful of local stylists, who volunteered their talents, were appended to the ecumenical ministry, “Answer God’s Call Ministry on Mesa Avenue.”

Note: Ho’zho is a Navajo word describing a way of living that includes harmony, beauty, truth and balance.

The Ho’zho Wellness Center for Personal Enhancement is located at 216 W. Maloney Ave.

“I actually didn’t know they were giving out haircuts,” Jefferson Miles, 57, a retired firefighter, said. Miles is from Farmington and is homeless.

“I pulled over to change my jacket, but decided to get a haircut,” he said.”  I’m very thankful for it.”

There was a brief prayer before the hair-cutting began. Then, in an orderly fashion, the men and women wanting haircuts waited, shared small talk and ate — the meal provided on the dime of Kimberly Wahpepah of Gallup, herself once homeless and a volunteer organizer of the event.

“I know what it’s like to be homeless, because I was once homeless,” Wahpepah said. “There is no charge for anything here. I do it because I want to help people. I like getting involved in volunteer work.”

Wahpepah, who drives around Gallup periodically and serves food to homeless people, said the amount of people wanting haircuts dwindled as the 3 pm hour approached. She said those who showed ranged from homeless wayfarers to couples who’s fallen on hard times.

“For me it’s a way of giving back” Chris Wahpepah, the husband of Kim and a barber, said. “In doing this, I’m helping somebody.”

Chris Wahpepah said no style cuts were given, just basic cuts. No one was turned away for the three -hour session, the two said. Chris and Kim said the haircuts go a long way in terms of landing a job interview, grooming or simply bolstering self-confidence.

“A haircut can change the way you think about everything,” Karen Weiss of Gallup said. Weiss said she just got a trim. “You just feel different. You look different, too.”

Miles, who said he considers himself, “temporarily homeless, added, “You leave here looking better and feeling better about yourself.”

By Bernie Dotson
For the Sun