Amid the harsh beauty of the Navajo Nation, heartbreak can be found around almost every bend on the highway: newborn puppies abandoned in boxes along the side of the road; hungry strays fighting over scraps of dead rabbits or mice; family pets lying lifeless in the sun after being hit by pickup trucks and semis.

With only five animal control officers and four small shelters for an area roughly the size of West Virginia, “it’s a forgotten place,” says Kathleen Toth, president of Nuzzles & Co., a Park City, Utah-based animal rescue organization that travels to the Navajo Reservation every three weeks to pick up dogs that would otherwise be euthanized.

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“The need is so great,” Toth tells PEOPLE, “that for every 50 dogs we rescue, we know that we’ve left 150,000 there. It’s overwhelming, but we can’t stop trying. These are sweet and smart dogs who know what it takes to survive. They deserve a chance.”

Image zoom Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co. Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co.

In the past 18 months, Toth, 48, and a band of volunteers in Utah and on the reservation that spans across southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, have saved more than 1,500 dogs (and numerous cats), taking as many animals as they can fit into their van and driving nine hours back to Park City. After the pets are neutered or spayed, vaccinated and bathed, they are put up for adoption or sent to foster homes.

“The problem on the reservation is complex,” says Toth, “but we’re not coming at this from a place of judgement. It’s important to us to develop relationships with people who live and work on the reservation and see the problems daily. They’re doing the very best they can with the little resources they have.”

Among those who have seen the problem of abandoned pets firsthand is Yvonne Todacheen of Shiprock, New Mexico, who has taken in stray animals on the reservation for more than a decade.

Image zoom Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co. Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co.

Now, working with Navajo Nation Animal Control and Soul Dog Rescue, she and her husband, Izzy, pull as many animals out of shelters as they can for Nuzzles & Co.

“What we do makes a difference — to that stray, mangy dog that has been mistreated, or those puppies who were left to die in a cardboard box, or the pregnant dog frantically scrounging for a good and safe place to deliver her babies,” Todacheen, 53, tells PEOPLE. “Overpopulation of animals is rampant on the reservation and animal rescue here is a frustrating and never-ending task. It’s a people problem, not an animal problem.”

More spay and neuter clinics are desperately needed, says Todacheen, along with education about pet care and vaccinations.

“We have a long way to go to get the Navajo Nation leaders to see the importance of animal welfare,” she says. “Right now, it’s at the bottom of their list. It gives me hope for my Navajo people, though, when I see a traditionally-dressed grandma at a spay-neuter clinic gently holding her dog, who is coming out of anesthesia, or a family who is barely getting by, but still manages to care for their pet. Progress is coming in baby steps.”

Image zoom Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co. Courtesy of Nuzzles & Co.

With an estimated 160,000 homeless pets roaming the reservation on any given day, “the kill rate at the shelters is very high — most animals don’t come out alive unless they are rescued,” Toth tells PEOPLE.

Also, with an unemployment rate of 42 percent on the reservation, the cost of getting a dog or cat spayed or neutered is prohibitive for families living in extreme poverty, she says.

Still, there are happy stories to help break up the heartache.

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Toth recalls the story of Odessa, a stray mixed-breed who gave birth on the side of the road to a new litter of puppies. All of them died. Emaciated and covered in mites that had started to eat away her face, Odessa was also near death when she was rescued and taken to Park City for medical care.