Proud to be a part of dog-rescuing community
On Christmas Eve, my house guests texted me to say there was a very ill dog at the gate. I headed up, with heavy heart, wondering what I could do to help a sick stray when the vets and the humane society were closed.
When I arrived, the dog had perked up considerably, and my neighbors had a makeshift leash around its neck.
Since they were headed out, we decided that I would take it back and put it in a kennel in my barn, and my neighbor would post notices on Facebook and craigslist.
I called Paula Beamer, who I knew had a chip scanner, and she graciously drove down on Christmas Day and scanned for a chip. No chip.
Stymied, I kept the dog as comfortable as I could and waited until the 26th, when the humane society re-opened.
Meanwhile, my neighbors and Paula were checking in and doing what they could to find the dog’s owners.
The humane society initially said it had not received a report of a lost dog matching the description I supplied, but I received a very excited phone call from their animal control officer today, saying she had gone back through the records and had found the owner, who had filed a lost dog report weeks ago.
I love being part of a community in which people work together to help out others, and I think Tasha, at the humane society, went above and beyond to reunite this pup with his loving family!
Judy Howard
Waimea
Aggressive boats in bay too much
I agree with David Crawford’s letter. The harassment of the dolphins in Kailua Bay has become unbearable. To the best of my knowledge it is also illegal.
I live here and am a regular swimmer in the bay. I have watched the tour boats descend on the resting pods enmasse, especially on cruise ship days. All of the boats have radios and the word goes out when the dolphins show up. They swarm in with boatloads of tourists and drop them in the water right on top the resting pods.
One recent Wednesday, I witnessed 16 boats doing exactly what Mr. Crawford described. To make matters worse, they bring the boats into the established swim zone that has been used by open water swimmers here for over 30 years. Many swimmers, including myself, have confronted the captains of the danger they pose, telling them to get the boats away from the swimmers. Unfortunately, some of the captains get very aggressive and verbally abusive to the people in the water.
We have photos of a captain literally circling at high speed extremely close to swimmers threatening their lives. As the conditions deteriorate with more boats in the water trying to make money and entertain the tourists, it is becoming a very dangerous situation and someone is going to get mangled or killed. We have a local group of regular swimmers and almost everyone I have spoken with about this problem is very concerned and upset about the unacceptable dolphin harassment and the danger the aggressive captains pose to swimmers in the water.
We are actually going to try to get the DNLR to officially designate the swim zone in Kailua Bay as a no boat area, keeping them at least 200 yards outside of it. We can only pray the state steps up and does the right thing. Something has to be done because the problem is getting out of control.
Jane Burton
Kailua-Kona