It is a shame that some letters to the editor have begun to personally attack the board of the Hawaii Island Humane Society and to polarize this as a “cultural” issue. The culture of Hawaii Island Humae Society is to help the animals.
HIHS b oard members are animal lovers. The HIHS board and its president, Adam Atwood, are dedicated animal lovers —volunteers who work tirelessly to adopt out every dog and cat that they can. No one wants to euthanize any animal, most of all these professionals who selflessly volunteer their time to HIHS.
HIHS excels in adoptions. HIHS aims to adopt out every adoptable pet, and it has steadily pushed its adoption rates up beyond the amount that our island would seemingly be able to absorb. HIHS also partners with reputable nonprofits on the mainland and here to find homes for unwanted animals. It excels in adoption rates and exceeds the national average by 58 percent.
HIHS receives no county funding for adoptions and works round the clock to raise funds for adoptions; last year it raised over $1 million to fund adoptions. HIHS also funds free and reduced-cost spay and neutering campaigns, which aim to reduce the number of unwanted animals that may be dumped on its doorstep in the future.
The risk of limited admission “no-kill” shelters. HIHS most certainly has the goal of being a “no-kill” shelter — to adopt out every adoptable pet. But that does not mean adopting or letting loose every critter that comes through its doors; to do so would come at the cost of risking community safety.
HIHS is an “open admission” shelter, which means it accepts all animals, not just healthy adoptable ones. In contrast, most no-kill shelters are limited admission shelters, which turn away unhealthy animals and limit the number of pets they accept. But if HIHS did this, simply to guarantee zero euthanasia, dangerous and diseased animals would be turned away, roaming the streets. This in turn would endanger the community and would expose the county to liability. Someone has to do it; if not HIHS, who would take on that task?
We residents are the problem. The crux of problem is that most Big Island residents do not want to adopt the thousands of feral mongooses, chickens, guinea pigs, and feral cats that the HIHS receives each year, and to release them back into the wild could hurt our native wildlife. The number of unwanted animals is staggering— on average HIHA receives over 1,000 various pets and critters monthly. Likewise, people do not want to adopt dogs and cats that are dangerous and cannot be rehabilitated. As for diseased animals, HIHS does all it can to treat animals that come through its doors, but many animals are still too sick or injured for people to want to adopt.
Retaliatory motives by naysayers? Groups that will not even apply to partner with HIHS have no right to malign HIHS in smear campaigns. Is the purpose of these efforts to redirect county funding to other groups who may want to profit from the animals? Everyone — most of all HIHS — wants to increase adoptions. However, the current blitz of unfair slams against HIHS appears to be retaliatory: pressure tactics against HIHS for it simply enforcing its procedures. HIHS procedures ensure that its partner organizations are above-board and do not have profit motives or other ulterior motives that put the animals at risk. We should laud HIHS for protecting vulnerable animals from being sold elsewhere for profit, animal research, or who-knows-what.
Similarly, we should give little clout to groups who may want to take out animals in bulk, but who refuse to follow HIHS’s minimum safeguards. We should be cautious of groups which may apply but otherwise do not qualify if they cannot show where the animals go once they leave HIHS.
The solution is not to force HIHS to close its doors to unwanted animals simply in the name of being a 100 percent no-kill shelter. We need an open-admission shelter to keep the rest of us safe. First, if we truly want to increase adoptions, everyone interested should simply adopt a pet. Second, policywise we should support the county passing mandatory spay and neutering laws, as many counties on the mainland have enacted. This will reduce the numbers of animals that end up on HIHS’s doorstep.
Most of all, in the meantime let’s support HIHS in continuing its important work to protect and find homes for these at-risk animals. Personally attacking the HIHS board hurts all of us, and especially the animals we all care about, if it drives away the dedicated professionals who volunteer their time and expertise for the best interests of the animals and our island home.
Shawna Ganley is an attorney and who grew up on Oahu and has longtime family ties to the Big Island.
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not of West Hawaii Today