We’re of the opinion that if someone commits animal cruelty, it’s not a leap for such an individual to commit equal atrocities against fellow humans.
That’s precisely why the terrible pain and suffering inflicted on the Shetland pony Patches should have all of us — especially folks in Minidoka County — very alarmed.
Patches was tortured so badly he had to be euthanized.
The individuals who decided to harm this pony (a friendly animal that had never hurt anyone) did things to this horse than can only be described as sick.
They tied Patches to the back of their vehicle and dragged him for over a mile.
They cut off his genitals.
They beat him over the head with a blunt object until his eyes swelled shut.
They beat other parts of his body as evidenced by the multiple puncture wounds visible on Patches.
The torture of this innocent animal took place Saturday night. On Sunday, Patches’ owners found their badly beaten pony and contacted a veterinarian who determined that he couldn’t undo what these evil individuals had done to the animal.
Patches was euthanized.
We don’t need to tell Minidoka Sheriff Eric Snarr and his deputies how important it is for them to bring Patches’ torturers to justice.
This pony was loved by neighborhood children who would stop by to feed him treats and give him a pat on the head.
Those who severely beat this animal are the worst of humanity.
Let’s show Patches the best of humanity by bringing his attackers to justice.
We speak for the entire community when we urge the Minidoka County Sheriff’s Department to put these degenerates behind bars.
Community should have been given a chance to save cats
The Pocatello Animal Shelter recently euthanized its entire cat population because of fears they were infected with a difficult to treat herpes virus.
Officials at the shelter thought killing all 100 cats was their only option because treating the shelter’s entire cat population was deemed too difficult.
We don’t question that it would have been costly and time-consuming to rid the cats of their infection.
But we’d like to ask city and animal shelter officials to next time give Pocatello area residents a chance to help.
Many people were absolutely shocked at the decision to put down the shelter’s entire cat population. Some have questioned the necessity of such a move considering this was a treatable ailment.
But what’s done is done.
The fact is that for our shelter’s small staff, treating one cat for feline herpes is doable, but treating 100 is not.
Our only regret is that city and animal shelter officials never turned to their greatest resource — the community — for assistance with this very bad situation.
If the officials would have explained the problem and said that volunteers as well as money for feline medical expenses were needed, our community would have stepped to the plate big time.
Animal shelter officials went to the community in 2012 to ask for the $2.8 million needed to build a new animal shelter. For the referendum to pass, two-thirds of voters had to give the project the green light.
Guess what happened? Pocatello voters agreed to fund the new shelter.
If Pocatello residents were given the opportunity to help save 100 cats, we’re confident they would have once again stepped up and gotten it done.
But they never got the chance.
The next time our animal shelter is in trouble, we strongly encourage our city’s leaders to explain the problem to the community and say “we need your help.”
We promise they’ll be genuinely impressed at the outpouring.
If that would have happened with the feline herpes outbreak, you better believe many of those cats would have been saved.
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