Idaho Falls Animal Shelter — Local services in Idaho Falls

If I could give zero stars, I would. This shelter has a program to help spay/neuter ferrel cats. I have family members with ferrel cats that have used the program successfully to help control the ferrel cat population with every intent of returning the cat back to its dwelling. Unfortunately, the most recent visit was a different experience.

While I recognize the office staff says most people could care less about a ferrel cat (they wanted to know why we are so upset they were keeping the ferrel cats brought in), some of us do. Per this shelter, people do not own the ferrel cats and while they said we are not "surrendering" cats when we bring them in (because we don't own it), they can choose not to return a ferrel cat. Yes, they said this. They can choose to re-home it to a barn house (I doubt every vet tech who falls in love with a ferrel cat also happens to have a barn house). We were told if we wanted to get the ferrel cats back, we now have to pay an adoption fee. What? They are ferrel and will stay ferrel.

Now, to rewind to the very first part of my phone conversation with the front desk at this shelter. I was told ferrel cats HAVE to go back to their found location. This makes perfect sense and is the intent. From there, the conversation went down a rabbit hole in which I was informed they put a medical hold on ferrel cats AND they can re-home them to a barn house. I was told people have to state they want ferrel cats back if they want them back. This is regardless of the fact we don't own them AND are not surrendering them. All of this is according to the front desk woman with many years of employment (I failed communications 101 to take her name).

At the end of the day, I called to A) Find out the policy about returning ferrel cats and B) Ask for them to be transparent about the fact that they can keep ferrel cats or charge you for their return. I accomplished A by learning they don't view a ferrel cat as your property and may choose to take it away from you. But the harder topic was B. The woman said they would absolutely NOT post any type of notice about possibly keeping the ferrel cat anywhere on the office wall. She also said they don't have time to share this with patrons because they see hundreds of cats every day. As someone who majored in communications, I am extremely disappointed. This whole situation could have been avoided. We would have taken our ferrel cats to one of the other local clinics to get them fixed for a nominal fee ($30) in order to guarantee we could return them to their place of dwelling.

We are still hopeful for the return of these ferrel cats with an unexpected cost of around $70+ each. We enjoy supplement feeding and having these cats mouse to help keep our mouse population down. And they are cute cats (we know this is why someone is trying to take them from us!). After this, I don't think we will bother to bring in any of the other dozen ferrel cats. We need mousers around us.

Shame on Idaho Falls Animal Shelter for not being more transparent. And shame on the front desk woman who seems senseless and cannot comprehend why someone would care about returning a ferrel cat to its place. If you like seeing a ferrel cat around, take it somewhere else to be spayed/neutered. Otherwise, you may be taking it in to never see it again. (something tells me this would not upset the front desk woman who has been there for years and is apparently too overwhelmed by cats to care that someone...

I started out so excited. I saw a puppy on Facebook, called to see if I could come down to the shelter and take a look in person, got the okay. Drove to the shelter. The puppy was even better than I had hoped. She wasn't available for adoption until the 31st so as to give the original owners time to claim her in the event that she had wandered off. I called every day asking if she had been reunited with her family and was told no she will be available on the 31st. I called the morning of the 31st to confirm I would be adopting her. I left work early, brought a leash I had purchased the day before and started the paperwork for the adoption. At that point I was informed I couldn't take her home because she had to go to the vet to get spayed. I offered to take her myself. They informed me it was no longer the policy to allow the animal to leave before it gets fixed. I was even more annoyed at that point. I asked if I could see her and they said go ahead. I went to her kennel and was surprised to see her shaking and she had lost a great deal of weight since I first saw her a few days prior. It upset me terribly. I asked when I could really pick her up and they said we would have to call the vet in the morning to find out when to pick her up. After looking over the paperwork, one of the lines said by signing the paperwork we agree to take the dog to the vet ourselves. The person behind the counter said it was a recent policy change. Maybe the paperwork should reflect the current policy. If we wanted to push the point, legally they were withholding our property. In addition, the dog was very stressed and not doing well. It might have been better for the dog if she had a more relaxing and secure environment. All of this could have been avoided if someone had said you can't pick the dog up until after her surgery. Also, the dog might have a more successful recovery if she is less stressed and a healthy weight. It clearly demonstrates there are some issues the shelter...

I adopted a husky from this shelter in May. After 2 months, this has been a phenomenal decision. My husky is overjoyed to have an owner. I went to the shelter about 10-20 times before picking her. The staff and volunteers were so accommodating and they care about the animals’ wellbeing. They were very helpful in finding the very best fit for my lifestyle and preferences. It can be painful to walk in and feel the stress of so many caged animals, which is why I advocate for rescue. In many situations, the animals here are better off than in the many abusive homes where they find themselves. With my husky, there has been a learning curve for potty training and obedience, but it has been a fun journey. There is obvious evidence of past abuse in her scars and jumpy behavior. Sometimes we find inexplicable behavior such as strong aversion to the basement or to particular animals. But we love her and are grateful the IF shelter is doing everything they can to rehome the unfortunate animals...