Snake River Animal Shelter — Local services in Idaho Falls

If I could give them no stars I would!! 😤 Husband took me to the shelter to pick out a dog as a wedding gift, I’ve always loved dogs and grew up with them so I knew what I was getting myself onto and that dogs are a commitment. We found the perfect boy, or so we thought…. We were told he was amazing! He didn’t hardly ever bark, he was great with other animals and good with kids. Well, we took him home and he was VERY quiet the first few days, so much so that I was worried, took him to the vet, yeah he didn’t bark BECAUSE HE WAS SICK. Vet said most dogs get sick in the shelters. Soon as we got him over being sick he barked all the time. Second claim that was false? That he was good with other animals. He tried killing all our other animals. Oh and third thing? He attacked our kids, neighbor’s boy AND MY GROWN ADULT BROTHER. So, lesson learned, I will NEVER trust this shelter again. Felt like I was lied to so they could just get rid of another dog. Oh, OH!!! And another thing?! We had to sign an agreement saying that if we couldn’t keep him for at least 3 months then we had to give him back. I posted on Facebook with a group about finding him a better home since the Shelter LIED to us about him and I wanted to be HONEST about his vices. The girl from the shelter WHO LIED TO US THROUGH HER TEETH, found my post on Facebook, I’m not even sure HOW, and said we had to give him back with no refund because we hadn’t had him for longer then a month. Don’t care about the money part, was more upset that she was just going to turn around and sell him to someone else and lie to them as well. Definitely BUYERS BEWARE.

Edit: And now they are trying to discredit me by saying I have the wrong shelter. I don’t. And they don’t have my record of buying a dog. So, discrediting me and don’t keep very good records. Again BUYERS BEWARE.

Also, I tried calling the shelter to chat about this problem since they don’t believe me and there is a recording and wouldn’t even let me leave a message so.. maybe fix that and then we can...

We came here with our 1 year old to look at cats. He was very excited and well behaved. However, as we were holding a cat we wanted to get to know better (yes we asked first) an older lady with short curly brown hair came in. Her demeanor was very unwelcoming and awkward. She stood by the door for a minute and my kid got excited and threw a little cat toy (he's 1, it wasn't a big throw and the toy was tiny). He also let out an excited screech. It wasn't even that loud. The lady flinched like she'd been hit and told us to get a handle on him because it stresses out the cats. I can definitely understand and appreciate not wanting to stress them out but he's only one (almost 2) and was being very well behaved. We weren't even there very long. I'd think that cats stuck in a cage all day wouldn't mind a little stimulation. And if it's really that big of a deal maybe they should say something before we went in there with him. People will want to see how well an animal is with their kids, that's not an abnormal request. The cat we had out loved my son and the rest of them were safely in their cages. I felt judged and unwelcomed. We left immediately. I'm not sure what that lady's problem is but those cats were better with kids than she is. She overreacted and chased us off. I hope she can learn some tolerance and those cats find homes. Many of them will end up in a home with kids 🤷‍♀️ and kids can be loud. It is what it is. And she could have said what she wanted to say in a better way. But only if he was actually causing a problem which he wasn't. We...

Very disappointed and upset today! Brought my husband and 2 well behaved young children in today to teach them about giving, and helping animals! Brought new dog and cat toys for chrismas and wanted our kids to give them out and see the how nice it feels to make another beautiful being happy. Was told we could not go see the dogs and cats couldn't have doors opened or fingers in cages. When i said we wanted to teach our kids about giving was told she would follow us. We ended up leaving the toys but we very dissapointed and my son started crying because he had been so excited to give toys to the dogs and cats. Also told this was a new month old policy so not sure how anyone is getting adopted if you cant go see the animals. We have been going every month or two just to see and socialize dogs and cats and have never had a problem with this. I hope this older woman is at least told that public education of good will towards animals should always be encouraged especially in younger generations!

Unfortunately after the unprofessional, poorly written response from the owner, we will not be returning nor donating to this facility.

It is sad to see people who have to reply with their adoption numbers and unprofessional passive agressive comments, when we made it clear we were there in the holiday spirit and looking to show our children kindness toward less fortunate animals. With the proper procedures, this could have been a great experience for both humans and animals but it was taken from us all. I wish the best to all the animals up...