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Anna Neubauer has seen communities with something like Oahu’s population of free-roaming cats — a mix of feral animals and pets that are simply unrestrained — but it’s been a while.
“Cats are a problem everywhere, just in regards to numbers on the streets, overpopulation, that sort of thing,” said Neubauer, who recently became president and CEO at the Hawaiian Humane Society. “It’s very prevalent here. … It reminds me of where a lot of communities were 20 years ago.”
What has happened in the meantime is an inadequate attempts to reduce the population through spay/neuter initiatives reaching feral cat colonies. It hasn’t helped that friendly ties between the society and other groups in the animal-care community have weakened in recent years.
A recent example of the strains between HHS and its critics was the clash before the Honolulu City Council in its hearing of Bill 59, a measure now enacted. In particular, the measure’s provision reducing the time a stray pet with ID would be held at the society’s Waialae Avenue campus, down from nine to five days.
It was a change that was misunderstood, Neubauer said: Only a small percentage of lost cats with IDs are still awaiting owners to claim them after five days. Some owners do abandon their pets; others have not updated their contact information and cannot be reached, she said.
In the meantime, Neubauer added, the ordinance also allows injured pets to be treated more quickly.
“I think the important thing to take away is this: This means we’re going to save more lives,” she said.
Neubauer, 42, moved here with her husband and two children last year from a post in Denver as vice president of operations for an animal shelter. Among the society’s key projects is the planning and fundraising for a second shelter/adoption facility in Ewa.
But the cat issue, and the need to mend some community fences, have risen to top-priority status. Spay-neuter quotas, and outreach to those who tend cat colonies will be greatly increased this year, in partnership with the city.
“We’re looking for additional granting and private donations to be able to spay and neuter 10,000 free-roaming cats this year as opposed to our goal this past year, (which) was 5,000,” she said.
“I would say in five years we’ll start to see significant change. And in some areas … we’re able to target a neighborhood and get it done. That can be within the year.”
Question: What was the general aim of Bill 59, which was passed by the City Council, concerning the management of stray dogs and cats?
Answer: Bill 59 will help save more animals by aligning with national best practices for animal welfare and sheltering. Here are some of the key provisions:
Mandatory microchipping of dogs and cats – A microchip is the quickest way to reunite pets with their owners. Current law mandates that dogs have a city-issued license and physical tag, but compliance is low at 12%. …
Stray hold times – Lowering our current required hold time for pets with ID to five days will allow us to more quickly address the needs of those who are not reclaimed.
Mandatory spay/neuter and fines for habitual strays – Being stray puts animals at high risk of injury, illness and death. Unsterilized stray animals also contribute to pet overpopulation. Stray dogs can pose a public safety threat. These fines are meant to encourage dog owners to keep their pets safe.
Q: How are you going to address the strains between the Hawaiian Humane Society and some in the community who were protesting last year? Is this commonly experienced by branches elsewhere?
A: That effort has already begun and is showing real results. The first step was to bring in a panel of animal welfare experts, including veterinarians, to do a comprehensive assessment of our policies and practices. The next was to build the right team to help make the changes.
Since last April, we have had an almost 65% change in staff, including our leadership team. We have increased our staffing numbers to allow us to provide better care for more animals.
Q: The feral chicken population seems to have increased. What will the approach be now?
A: While we are aware of the increased conversation around the feral chicken issue on Oahu, proactive management of their population is outside both our expertise and mission. We are tasked by the city to enforce specific nuisance-complaint issue for owned chickens (including marginally-owned chickens being fed by individuals), and we are also tasked with issuing citations where the number of chickens exceeds two per household in residential areas.
Our contract with the city, however, does not include feral chicken management.
It’s likely that a primary cause of our feral chicken issues on this island is the dumping or escape of the birds as a byproduct of raising chickens for alleged cockfighting. …
Population management for feral chickens is both difficult and expensive. The cost to trap and humanely euthanize one chicken can run into the hundreds of dollars.
Q:The 2018-19 annual report shows more than $10 million in operating expenditures with the largest funding sources the $4.7 million in contributions and $3.7 million from the city. Any budgetary changes anticipated here?
A: About 20,000 animals come through our shelter every year. In order to properly care for them, and deliver on the significant lists of positive changes we are making, we have added 20 new positions this year, with most of those being in our fostering, animal care, and veterinary services areas. …
About 35% of our funding comes through our City and County animal contracts, about 48% is through contributions from individuals, foundations and grants, and the rest comes primarily from fees for our services, such as adoptions. A recent focus of ours is to seek grants from both Hawaii and national organizations to help us expand our efforts in such areas as cat spay/neuter and homeless pet owner outreach.
Q: How would you characterize the stray dog population? Has homelessness had an effect?
A: Overall numbers of stray dogs is on a downward trend. What we are seeing is a slight increase in repeat strays. Bill 59 has provisions designed to encourage dog owners to keep their pets safe and secure.
We don’t have the data to determine whether the increase in routine strays is attributable to homeless owners, but we recently set up an outreach team to focus on working with our homeless pet owner population.
We will work to better understand the scope of the challenge and find solutions that improve the lives of those pets and help reduce the number of repeat strays. We’re working closely with Partners in Care and the Point in Time Count in this effort.
Q: How is the Hawaii Cat Café partnership working out? Any other such collaborations being planned?
A: We are thrilled to be in partnership with the Hawaii Cat Café. They provide a calm space for potential adopters to spend time with our cats. Many of our special-needs and shy cats are adopted through them as it gives adopters the time to get to know the cats’ unique needs and see their personalities shine through.
We also are working with PAWS of Hawaii, a foster-based dog rescue, to get dogs with special needs ready for their permanent homes.
Additionally, we’ve stepped up our collaboration with free-roaming-cat-colony caregivers — helping with cat food and advocacy, and in turn receiving their help to manage challenging cat colonies. CatFriends in particular is an exceptional organization focused on improving lives of free-roaming cats. …
It takes a community to get animal welfare right, and we are rebuilding relationships and partnerships with other animal welfare organizations on our island.
Lastly, we’ve recently begun a pilot program transferring pets to mainland shelters with low numbers of pets for adoption. We plan to expand this program and are grateful to the Arizona Humane Society and Hawaiian Air Cargo for their commitment to helping pets find new homes.
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