The time has come for Hawaii to face facts about the problem with feral cats.

The current flash point is Waikoloa Marketplace on Hawaii island, where organized groups of cat protectors provide food, water and spay/neuter treatment to feral cats. Waikoloa itself is a dry lavascape, so cats abandoned or born around the private shopping center congregate nearby in multiple colonies.

Trouble is, cat food also attracts Hawaii’s state bird and the world’s rarest goose, the endangered nene.

Nene were hunted by humans and killed by introduced species, including cats, to the point of extinction. By 1960, only 30 birds remained alive, all on Hawaii island. An aggressive captive breeding program and increasingly strict federal law protecting endangered species brought them back from the brink; now about 3,800 nene subsist throughout Hawaii.

Federal law protecting the threatened birds prohibits approaching, endangering or feeding them.

On April 18, two women were cited by state conservation officers during a protest at Waikoloa Marketplace over a state order that cat feeding stations, placed on the private, commercial property by the cat protectors, be removed. An uproar ensued, with impassioned defenders of outside feeding programs on one side, and those fiercely protective of Hawaii’s endemic species on the other.

Cat-lovers’ strong supportive feelings toward the long-domesticated animals are understandable. However, there is an overriding interest here, and that is to protect and nurture Hawaii’s native species.

State Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Chair Dawn Chang met on Hawaii island with those feeding the cats on April 25.

With the state and Chang, we agree that the government’s mission should be “to protect our native threatened and endangered species.”

Feral cats have been found to be among “the most prolific predators” of several near-extinct, native forest birds, DLNR states. Additionally, as Chang emphasized, DLNR is required to protect nene by the federal Endangered Species Act.

Cats carry toxoplasmosis, which can also infect humans. To the alarm of naturalists, toxoplasmosis also kills birds — and it is, tragically, the leading cause of early death for the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Without specifics, Chang said DLNR will be ramping up education efforts to involve communities in protecting native species and choosing a path to bring cats indoors. Public and community action is indeed necessary, and the message is clear: Cats do not belong in the wild, even at the edge of a shopping center in Waikoloa.