Diné Dog Rescuer Chantal Wadsworth Earns National Recognition

Humane World for Animals, the organization formerly known as Humane Society International, nominated Chantal Wadsworth (Diné) this month for its More Than a Pet Community Hero Award, honoring a woman who has rescued more than 3,000 dogs and cats on the Navajo Nation since co-founding Rez Road Rescue with her partner Vernan Kee in 2023.

The nomination casts a national spotlight on an animal welfare gap that stretches across the reservation and into Apache County. Navajo Nation Office of Environmental Health records have documented an average of 247 dog bites per year in Tuba City alone, a figure that reflects what animal control officers, stretched across more than 27,000 square miles of tribal land, have long described as an unmanageable caseload.

The scale of the problem became impossible for Wadsworth and Kee to ignore during a road trip across the Navajo Nation taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You see them everywhere," Wadsworth said. "Gas stations, junctions, grocery stores, the side of the road. Sometimes we would see dogs in the middle of nowhere, and it's like they couldn't possibly have a home out here, nobody out here, and they probably were abandoned. So that's when we started asking ourselves: how can we help?"

That question produced Rez Road Rescue in 2023. Among the organization's programs is what Wadsworth describes as the only pet food pantry on the Navajo Nation: a year-round drive-thru where families collect food for dogs, cats, and livestock animals. Cars routinely start queuing two hours before the pantry opens.

"A lot of times, not having food is the deciding factor in people keeping their pets," Wadsworth said. "It's really rewarding to be able to offer these multiple services to families, and the need is never-ending."

The pantry fills a gap that the Navajo Nation's formal animal welfare code cannot close on its own. Tribal law requires annual licensing for all dogs and cats, current rabies vaccination as a condition of licensure, and a four-pet-per-species household limit. Enforcement has lagged consistently because the Nation's animal control program, by its own public accounting, lacks the officers and shelter capacity to patrol its territory effectively.

Rez Road Rescue also connects families with veterinary care, including spay and neuter access that Wadsworth frames as the most direct lever for reducing abandonment long-term.

"People just don't have a lot of options out here," she said. "But the need is so great, if they do have an opportunity to get their pet spayed, they will find a way to make it work."

The More Than a Pet Community Hero Award recognizes individuals who work to expand equal access to pet care in underserved communities. Whether Wadsworth will be named a winner has not been announced.

Navajo Nation residents who need to report a stray dog, dog bite, or livestock attack can reach the Division of Natural Resources Central Dispatch at (928) 871-6491 or (928) 871-7041, which takes calls around the clock. Rez Road Rescue's pantry schedule and low-cost veterinary referrals are accessible through the organization's social media pages.