Tagged: Animal Cruelty

Updated at 1:25 p.m.

Police have arrested one of two men who they believe broke into an Idaho zoo the night a monkey there died from blunt-force trauma.  But questions remain about how and why the animal was killed.

Twenty-two-year-old Michael Watkins of Weiser was arrested Monday in Washington County on felony burglary and grand theft charges.

A tip from a citizen led police to Watkins.

Updated at 5:12 p.m.

BOISE, ID – Idaho’s House of Representatives will soon vote on an animal cruelty bill.  House lawmakers in charge of agriculture backed legislation today that calls for penalties on people who torture pets.  The first two violations would be misdemeanors.  A third would be a felony.  Republican Representative Gayle Batt from Wilder has trouble with the bill.  She says, “Philosophically, I’m just really struggling with what to do with this legislation when we have abuse of children as misdemeanors and then we have for animals a felony.”  Child abuse can be considered a misdemeanor in Idaho i