Idaho Humane Society Overburdened

 The Idaho Humane Society is being taxed almost beyond their capacity of late. It’s due to increasing numbers of calls from either private individuals who can no longer afford to feed their livestock, or by state agencies who have fielded complaints about abused or neglected animals. Dr. Bill Barton, Administrator and Chief Veterinarian for the State of Idaho. “The Idaho Humane Society is the animal control agency for Ada County and certainly we have seen an increase in the number of animal care or animal neglect cases …complaints toward those cases anyway.”

 How do people get into that position where they all of a sudden go “Whoops”.

 (Barton) “I think there’s several factors. One of them has been the record prices we’ve seen for feed costs over the last couple of years, particularly this past year. With our current economic situation in the country, I think a lot of people found themselves overwhelmed trying to afford those high feed costs as well as take care of their personal needs, and then you have other contributing factors. I think there’s some potential education that needs to be done on behalf of people who haven’t owned livestock before as to what’s really required to care for those animals, particularly when you get into the winter months.”

 Dr. Barton says the vast majority of the neglect issues his agency deals with is horses.