You can help maintain and improve Idaho's animal protection laws by letting elected officials know your opinion on important issues affecting animals. While the Idaho Humane Society is here in Boise to represent animals before the legislature, we cannot succeed without the grass-roots involvement of average Idaho citizens. Your letters, emails and phone calls to law makers are vital to the cause.
The best way to keep informed about important legislation and regulations involving animals is to subscribe to our PawPrints newsletter and sign up for our Action Alerts by email. Also, check out our current legislation page, we'll keep you posted and let you know when government officials need to hear your voice.
Idaho's Animal Protection Laws
Unfortunately, Idaho has been ranked one of the five worst states in the country for its laws protecting animals.
However, thanks to the Idaho Humane Society and our supporters, our animal cruelty and neglect laws have been strengthened in recent years.
- We won an important victory with an animal forfeiture bill, which allows courts to order defendants charged with animal neglect or cruelty to pay the costs of care for their mistreated animals, or, alternatively, to allow shelters to find new homes for them, before the conclusion of the underlying criminal case: a process that used to drag on for months, or even years.
- Our bill also provided the courts with the power to terminate the pet ownership rights of abusive owners.
- We lead the effort to successfuly pass a felony dog fighting law in 2008, and that same year we closed a loophole in our existing animal cruelty statute that permitted animal abusers to escape prosecution in certain circumstances.
- We also supported efforts to ban internet hunting, a bizarre and cruel exploitation of captive wildlife.
- Idaho is also now one of the few states in the country to ban the cruel sport of greyhound racing.
- We are constantly on the alert for any legislative measures which would endanger Idaho's animals or weaken existing protections, both at the state level and in local municipalities, and we vigorously oppose such efforts.
