more thoughts on the state of the economy- woman" pimped herself out for hay"

I came across this newspaper article from our Inland Northwest U.S.A. area http://www.krem.com/video/yahoo-video/Animal-Hoarding-suspect-pimped-herself-out-for-hay-141680423.html , it's rather sad.

The economic downturn has really hit people with animals, especially large animals,hard. There are food banks and government food assistance, for people, but few food banks or assistance programs for animal food. This year I chose to donate food directly to families and I also gave dog food for their pets. A local man went to jail for animal cruelty because his horses were starving. I am always against cruelty to animals but in this situation I think it was more a case of a lack of a market to sell the animals,combined with the rising cost of hay leaving some people with few options. Previously, I had helped the man round up an injured horse that he treated. I can't imagine him being neglectful on purpose.I'm not sure what throwing people in jail at great expense to the tax payer will do to fix the problem( other than assuring that they get food clothing and shelter, and the animals get taken somewhere where they will be cared for).
Perhaps there should be an educational campaign in the form of flyers sent out to all county residents informing people what to do if they find themselves unable to support their animals.There are rescue groups for horses (links here and here) and local humane societies. In this economy, the gas money to trailer large animals to auction 50 miles away is probably unaffordable for some animal owners, and animals are going for so little money at auction they may as well give them away for free on Craig's List (assuming of course that they have access to a computer). Petfinder also has listings for large animals that one can search for by specifying the type of animal (horse, goat, etc.) under the slot for "animal".
Unfortunately, hard times for people translates to hard times for their animals as well. I hope we as a society can draw the distinctions between cruelty and lack of information. I'm trying to figure this all out for myself. If some people are"cruel" to their animals because they have fallen into poverty and can't feed them, aren't the people who wrecked the economy "cruel" for driving these people into poverty? Please take care of yourselves and your animals and help educate others to do the same