Idaho animal shelter needs money to stay open. How much? Police chief shocked

Idahoans love animals. The World Population Review says 69.9% of Idaho residents own pets, ranking the state fifth in the country. The Review also says Idaho has the highest dog ownership rate in the nation: 58.3% as of 2016.

Despite the state’s soft spot for furry friends, a nonprofit animal shelter in Caldwell is at risk of closing its doors.

The West Valley Humane Society has served the community since 2011, when Canyon County decided to privatize its animal shelter. Since then, the shelter says, it has served just under 9,000 animals per year, according to the shelter’s profile on Chewy.

But the shelter’s new board says it ran into serious financial trouble, in part because of lax financial record-keeping. The situation is so dire that to stay open, the shelter is asking Caldwell to increase its funding by 700%.

The request shocked city leaders. Under the city’s budgeting, the money could be taken from the Police Department’s budget. But Police Chief Rex Ingram says his department is already short of officers. He is skeptical of the Humane Society’s financial claims.

“They’re basically weaponizing and exploiting the animals to try to get people upset about this and to force our hand to pay a fine, or a fee, that is simply not explainable right now,” Ingram told the Idaho Statesman.

West Valley Humane Society ‘not funded at adequate level’

But shelter leaders say Caldwell must now carry its fair share of the shelter’s expenses under the city’s contract with West Valley for animal holding. They’re asking Caldwell to pay $540,000 per year, up from $70,000.

“Quite frankly, when you look at the budget and the losses that we have incurred, it really just is a plain fact that West Valley Humane Society is not being funded at an adequate level to sustain our municipal contract and services,” said Tyler Byers, the shelter’s treasurer.

Canyon County’s population has boomed — growing 41% from 2010 to 2024 — and so has the animal population in the area, pushing the shelter into a “financial crisis,” according to Byers.

In response, the entire board of the West Valley Humane Society, except one member, resigned, and new management was established. The one member who remained on the board is Nancy Orr, its secretary.

The board asked Orr to stay on “because the one thing that we also wanted to be very sure of and very aware of was the history of West Valley,” said Nick Lippincott, the board’s president.

Lippincott and Byers say that they are confident in the shelter’s ability to turn its finances around and, with the support of its contracted municipalities, continue to provide animal services.

Caldwell, Nampa, Canyon County contract with shelter

West Valley also has municipal contracts with the city of Nampa and Canyon County. Seventeen percent of the shelter’s $1,965,309 in total revenue in 2024 came from the municipal contracts, according to the shelter’s annual financial report to the Internal Revenue Service.

The shelter is asking Nampa to increase its funds from $83,300 to $720,000, for an increase of 760%.

Canyon County is contracted to pay West Valley $240,000 per year, $100,000 of which can be used only for building maintenance. At the end of the fiscal year, any money leftover in the building maintenance fund must be returned to the county. West Valley’s new request asks Canyon County for $340,000 and asks to keep the residual building maintenance funds within the shelter.

The shelter is spending cash at a rate of $42,055 per month, and the board told the two cities and the county that West Valley would be out of cash reserves by February. With this rapid loss of cash reserves, the shelter has to pay salaries for a total of 32 employees.

West Valley works collaboratively with the Caldwell Police Department. The police employ their own animal control unit, which responds to calls and brings the animals to West Valley for treatment and holding.

Ingram said a study done by the department that analyzed calls for service and their substance, as well as the projected growth of the area, determined that the department is already down 30 officers. He said it costs about $150,000 to hire and outfit one officer with a vehicle.

“We don’t have the money to take from anywhere,” Ingram said by phone.

“I can’t see the city or myself saying, ‘You know what, we are going to fund this nonprofit even more than we’ve already been funding them,’” Ingram said by phone. “At some point, we can’t do that. We can’t continue. It’s not sustainable.”

According to the nonprofit, animals from Caldwell have consistently accounted for about 40% of the shelter’s intake in 2024, the most among its municipal partners. Last year, West Valley reported taking in 2,208 dogs and 1,705 cats.

Ingram said Caldwell police bring about 300 animals to West Valley every year, and the requested budget would allocate $16,000 to each animal. But Lippincott said at a town hall meeting June 30 that Ingram’s number doesn’t account for animals being surrendered and those that come from Caldwell but are not brought in by police.

Two town halls were held in Caldwell to allow taxpayers to weigh in. At the second of the two on June 30, and the City Council raised questions about the transparency of the shelter itself. Lippincott told the council that West Valley is a new organization after the management changes.

“It should be very clear that though the name of the organization is the same, and it’s understandable … that there might be individuals in the community frustrated about the history, it is exactly that,” Lippincott said. “It is history. It is past.”

“We need to really start focusing on going forward instead of the past,” he added.

Animal shelter was ‘in crisis,’ treasurer says

When the new board took over, the shelter was in a “financial crisis,” according to Byers.

“When we came on, we knew that there were financial issues,” Byers told the Statesman. “We didn’t know exactly what they were because the shelter hadn’t been keeping clean financial records.”

Said Lippincott: “There is not a history of really keeping up with the books in a super clean, easy to report out and share with partners type of way.”

Lippincott said “transparency is key” for the new management. He said West Valley has added sections to its website with intake statistics and tax and budget documents.

“It took some time to really understand our financials, but we feel like we’re in a good place now,” Byers said. “We understand where our issues are.”

Byers said more money is “desperately needed.”

“If we can’t staff the shelter, then we cannot continue to provide the services that these cities and the citizens really want,” he said.

This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 4:00 AM.