Lack of support in Council shelves ‘no-kill’ animal bill

A City Council committee voted Tuesday to defer a proposal requiring the Hawaiian Humane Society to inform no-kill shelters and the public whenever it intends to kill animals brought to the Moiliili facility.

Parks and Cultural Affairs Chairman Tom Berg called for the deferral of Bill 57 after the other members of the committee — Ikaika Anderson, Romy Cachola and Breene Hari­moto — all said they would not support it.

Berg said he is reworking the bill to make it more palatable for colleagues. "The deferral by no means says that this is over," he said, adding that he still feels strongly about the Humane Society making some kind of notification before killing animals.

Officials with the Hawaiian Humane Society testified that the bill was unnecessary and could lead to overcrowding and possibly the euthanization of more animals. The bill calls for the Humane Society to notify a registry of shelters and the public, and then give them at least five days to adopt a cat or dog before it can be killed. Animals deemed ill or dangerous could be killed sooner.

The Humane Society operates as the animal control contractor under a $2.3 million one-year contract that can be renewed for up to four more years before the city needs to seek new bids.The latest five-year cycle ends June 30. Humane Society officials said their total operating budget is about $6 million.

The bill was modeled after the so-called Hayden Act, which has been law statewide in California since 1999.

Keoni Vaughn, the Humane Society’s director of operations, said the law would be more difficult to implement here because there is only one animal control contractor on Oahu and because there are not enough shelters that can reasonably accommodate animals.

"We never turn any animal away," Vaughn said. "We accept the friendly, the healthy, the adoptable, the sick, the dying, the dangerous and the feral. Any rescue group and willing individual has had, does have and always has the opportunity to work with us."

The nonprofit Animal Haven "would be happy if they (post) the animals on their website that they’re going to kill and allows us to take them before they kill them," said organization President Frank De­Gia­como. "It’s really that simple."

He said there are about a dozen groups that could accept such animals.

But Abigail Bingham, executive director of the Oahu Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals, said she opposes the bill based on the same objections raised by the Humane Society. "This bill could open doors to detrimental animal welfare concerns resulting in unforeseen neglect and potential hoarding situations," Bingham said. Her own group, which works with the Humane Society, lacks the funding to take in more animals than it currently has, she said.

Bingham said the Council should concentrate on the "front end" of the issue of animal overpopulation by putting more resources into spay/neuter efforts.

Of about 30,000 animals brought into the Humane Society annually, officials said, about 3,000 are reunited with their owners, while 8,000 are adopted.

About 75 percent of the animals killed are feral cats.