Nearly 100 animals abandoned in North Idaho home

KELLOGG, Idaho — Nearly 100 animals have been rescued from deplorable conditions at a Kellogg, Idaho home, after an evicted renter left them behind.

The Kootenai Humane Society took in 66 dogs and four cats. Space is tight, but they said rescuing these animals was necessary, describing the conditions of the house as deplorable.

“We’re just happy they’re here and not in a home with nobody’s taking care of them,” said Vicky Nelson, development director of Kootenai Humane Society.

For four days, 85 dogs and 10 cats were alone. They were abandoned in the Kellogg home after their owner was evicted.

“There’s feces all over the place. There’s holes in the walls. They found some puppies in the wall,” said Debbie Jeffrey, executive director of Kootenai Humane Society.

The humane society got a call from Shoshone Animal Rescue, asking for help. At first, Jeffrey said they were only going to take in about 30 dogs, until that number jumped dramatically.

“Where are we going to put them all? We couldn’t say no,” Nelson said. “There’s no place in our area that can take this amount of dogs. Not that we can, but we absolutely made room for them.”

Within a few hours on Monday, they took in 66 dogs and four cats off a horse trailer, the most the humane society has ever taken in at once. Because of the limited amount of space, some kennels have five to six dogs in them.

“They’re just sweet babies. That’s all they are,” Nelson said.

Five pregnant dogs and the young puppies went to foster care, while two dogs died in Kellogg, and the rest are at a vet.

“We’ll be doing medical exams on all of them. They need to be spayed and neutered. They need to get all of their shots. We also microchip every animal before they’re adopted,” Nelson said.

The dogs are believed to be between 3-weeks and 8-years-old. Some are yorkies, terriers or chihuahuas. The humane society said they are all in pretty good shape.

“From the time everyone came out of the crate, they’re just friendly. They lick you, they want to kiss you,” said Jeffrey.

Despite space being a little tight, the animals now have a second chance of finding a forever home.

“It’s our mission. We take care of them. We save them,” said Nelson.

The dogs at the vet in Kellogg are expected to come to the Kootenai Humane Society as soon as Wednesday.

Some of the dogs will be on the humane society’s website up for adoption starting on Wednesday. As for the other dogs, in about a week or so, they are expected to be up on the website, too.

You must fill out a pre-registration form if you are interested in adopting a dog as the humane society is closed to walk-ins.

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