He’s a Big Boy and he needs a lot of food.

By the baleful, in fact.

A nonprofit group, Whidbey Island Farm Animal Assistance Program, has been taking care of the quarter horse since animal control obtained a warrant to seize the underweight animal last year.

Big Boy was placed in a foster home, and the group is paying for all his food and everything else horses need to stay healthy.

That can be expensive for a small group of volunteers.

Program members are asking animal lovers to donate bales of hay for Big Boy. People can go to one of two feed sources in the Oak Harbor area and purchase a bale that Big Boy’s foster mom can then pick up during her weekly food run.

Detective Sgt. Laura Price with the Island County Sheriff’s Office is a founding member of the group. She said Metcalf Hay and Feed on Oak Harbor Road and Ray Sullivan’s K & R Arena on Monkey Hill Road are both offering the group a great deal on the hay.

Donations can also be mailed directly to the group or directly deposited into the group’s account at Whidbey Island Bank. The address is WIFAAP, P.O. Box 402, Coupeville, WA, 98239.

Donations are tax deductible.

Price said the big lug is doing well now that he’s at a loving home with plenty to eat.

His future is somewhat in limbo as the criminal case against his owner wends its way through the courts. She faces three charges of animal cruelty for allegedly neglecting three horses to the point that they were substantially underweight and one died after being tied up like a dog, according to court documents.