Animal cruelty
25 horses taken from Canyon de Chelly

Navajo Nation Veterinarian, Dr. Scott Bender, inspects one of the horses confiscated from Justin's Tours prior to loading. Navajo Nation Rangers, Navajo Nation Law Enforcement, and National Park Service officials from Canyon de Chelly National Monument worked together to remove the animals. (Photo by Kathy Helms/Independent)

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

CHINLE — Law enforcement agencies blocked off the entrance Tuesday to Justin's Tours, located at the mouth of Canyon de Chelly, and rounded up 25 horses after serving a warrant on owner Justin Tso of Chinle, charging him with cruelty to animals, following a months-long investigation.

Members of the Department of Resource Enforcement, the National Park Service, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency's Enforcement Division, Navajo Nation Police and Dr. Scott Bender with Navajo Nation Veterinary Services moved in on the business which offers guided horse tours in the canyon.

"It's one of the worst cases I've seen," said Resource Enforcement Chief Leonard Butler. "There's a lot of outside people that have come to do business with this business here and have lodged written complaints about the condition of the horses and the way they're being treated.

"That's what was the initiating factor for the investigation and the eventual seizure and the warrant that was issued yesterday," Butler said. Tso was served with the warrant Tuesday morning at his Chinle residence.

"Cruelty to animals, that's the main charge that we have right now," Butler said.

According to Dr. Bender, there were an estimated 40 horses observed at the business when the investigation first began. "The park service ranger called me out because they had a down horse that was colicky," he said. Justin's had not reported the horse.

"I came out and took a look at it and then we took a look around. These are the better-looking horses, what's out here right now," Dr. Bender said.

On the same page
Resource Enforcement rangers were called in to take a look, as well as National Park Service officials. The various entities finally teamed up to address the problem, Bender said. Having the various agencies join hands has not been easy, but now, "Everybody's on the same page. This is a great little cooperative project we've got and it's taken years to get it to this point," he said.

Dr. Bender discussed findings upon the initial visit. "There were no salt blocks for the horses. They were licking the lead batteries for salt. So I'm sure that some of these horses have a little bit of lead poisoning. In fact, that may be the problem with that No. 1 horse," he said, pointing to a horse believed to be about 12 years old. "These horses are in rough shape."

Inspecting another animal, Bender said, "This particular horse here is infected with a disease called 'Strangles,' which is a disease that occurs around here. It technically could kill a horse, but it's one of those that kind of drives me nuts, because for $10, you could have prevented this."

He said he had never been called to Justin's to vaccinate any of the horses.

"The first horse that we loaded up there has got wounds over its body. Some of them are saddle-related, and then there are other ones. This horse was probably not in good shape and was thrashing around on the ground and that's where some of those other wounds came from," Bender said.

No. 1
Officers spray-painted a large red 1 on the horse's side, for identification and evidence purposes.

"The body condition score is, I can barely say 1. That's a walking skeleton right there," he said. "On top of that, the horse has a neurologic problem. If you look at it, it's got a head tilt and the ears held straight up. So it definitely has a neurologic problem. The underlying cause, I'm not sure, but given that I've seen horses sucking on these lead batteries here for salt, that may well be lead poisoning."

As the horse begins to get back on a good diet, the lead will start to clear out of its system, the vet said. "It's not life threatening as long as you can get it away from the source of the problem and start getting it back on the healing path. That one's in rough shape."

Another major concern Bender had is potential downstream contamination. "With luck, we're going to have a lot of water coming through the canyon, and this site does flood. All of the runoff from here goes into Many Farms Lake and is used for irrigation," he said.

In addition to trash and auto batteries, there were years of accumulated horse manure piled up in the water's path. Anderson Harvey of Navajo Nation EPA's Enforcement Department said his office received a call on the conditions at Justin's.

"One of the EPA departments under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) sent out a Notice of Violation (NOV) to Mr. Tso, and they identified several areas that have yard waste and household waste, auto waste, batteries, tires and so forth," Harvey said.

He learned that Justin's had been issued the NOV and ordered to make corrections within 10 days. That deadline will expire next week, Harvey said. Meanwhile, on Tuesday's visit, he identified several environmental violations, including two related to the accumulated livestock manure.

"That needs to be corrected," he said. "There's about four or five batteries around here and household waste is just scattered all over. Beer cans, pop cans, paper and plastic products all over." EPA also found stacks of tires.

Water concerns
Harvey said he hoped to bring in members of EPA's Water Quality Division to do an assessment. "This whole area is a floodplain area, so there's an environmental concern," he said.

Elaine Leslie, assistant superintendent at Canyon de Chelly National Monument where Justin's is located, said the National Park Service and Canyon de Chelly fully support the tribal rangers in their efforts to prevent animal cruelty.

"What we have is a lot of visitors that come to the monument and want to take horse tours, which we fully support and want visitors to have that experience. But the condition of these animals, it's not a safe issue right now. We would not put a visitor on a horse like this," Leslie said.

Park service officials also want to ensure that diseases from infected animals which have not been vaccinated are not spread to livestock owned by families living in the canyon.

"What we want to see is this condition improve. We want these animals to be of good condition so that visitors can go out, and (to see) that this is a business practice that's not only profitable for the guy that runs it, but also is a good experience for the visitors in a safe manner," she said.

"That's what we're all here trying to do to improve these conditions and make sure it doesn't happen again," Leslie said.

Several trailers loaded with horses ranging in age from 2 to 25 were removed to the Chinle impound yard, according to Chief Butler. Dr. Bender will make recommendations based on his examination of the animals, "and then we'll have to await the outcome of the court process to see exactly what needs to be done with the horses," Butler explained.

"More than likely, they will be auctioned off or sold," Butler said. "I think that based on what the judge rules, he could either lose the horses or at least be admonished to run the business properly and not neglect the animals."