Several cats and one nēnē seen together from a range on Tuesday night as a big group of individuals collected in the back car park at Queens’ Marketplace in Waikōloa to oppose the elimination of the long time feline feeding and watering stations.
Six days previously, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources purchased realty business Alexander & Baldwin, owner of the Big Island shopping mall, to eliminate the stations.
The required followed the state verified a grievance that nēnē (Hawaiian goose) were “observed consuming the cat food and regularly spending time among the feral cat colony, which has resulted in harm to nēnē.”
Nēnē are threatened and likewise the Hawaiʻi state bird, so securing them is a top priority of the state.
But securing the “community” cats of Waikōloa was the concern of a minimum of 50 individuals, young and old, who collected at the shopping mall, shouting: “Stop starving the cats.”
Also at the car park were at least 9 state preservation enforcement officers and 6 Hawai’i Island policeman, all of them armed.
Dan Dennison, representative for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the big officer existence was for safety and crowd control after seeing a number of social networks posts requiring individuals to demonstration.
They likewise were there for enforcement.
One female positioned a bowl of thin down in the lava field beside the car park. A state preservation officer discarded the bowl.
Sixteen-year-old Averie Sasaki strolled along the edge of the lava field bring a bowl filled with cat food, stating: “I think it’s cruel and I don’t want animals to suffer.”
She required the felines to come to her in hopes of feeding them, understanding it would lead to a fine. She said: “I’m willing to take a fine because it’s right. Who’s to say one species is better than the other. It’s unfair to say that nēnē are more important than cats. They’re all God’s creations.”
The teen eventually wasn’t fined.
But 2 females from Waikōloa were pointed out by state preservation and resources officers for “prohibited take of endangered species” by putting bowls of cat food on the ground. Both females likewise were informed by a Queensʻ Marketplace gatekeeper that they were trespassing and were no longer permitted anywhere on the property, according to a state news release.
A 3rd female was provided a caution after being found putting cat food into bowls behind a shed.
The fines that the 2 females received are not low-cost, at $2,500 each.
Debbie Cravatta, creator of Kohala Animal Relocation and Education Service, adamantly informed preservation officers not being permitted to feed the cats is antiquated. She likewise gathered money from the crowd to help spend for the womenʻs citations. She likewise said she would start a Go Fund Me page.
Many of the protesters are volunteers from numerous cat rescue companies, in addition to the not-for-profit ABaykitties, an organization that has actually been feeding the neighborhood cats for twenty years and has actually dealt with Catsnip to get the cats purified and sterilized.
Among the neighborhood cats is 6-year-old black and white Mini Me, likewise called M & M, who isnʻt quickly adoptable due to the fact that of her age and due to the fact that she hesitates of individuals.
“He’s destined to live in the parking lot and die of starvation,” said Dawn Garlinghouse, a volunteer of ABaykitties given that 2016 and now its director. “We’re trying to get the word out that this is inhumane and that they shouldn’t be allowed to let these animals suffer.”
Garlinghouse said the “community” cats at Queens’ Marketplace are not feral: “They’re spayed, neutered and cared for. They come for medical attention, and those that we can adopt are re-homed.”
Garlinghouse said her organization does adoptions through Petco and Catsnip Hawaiʻi in Kapa‘au: “We get as many as we can into homes. They’re only returned to the property if there isn’t a foster available or they’re not adoptable.”
The organization has actually been dealing with Queens’ Marketplace for several years in this feeding and trap-neuter-release program in an effort to decrease the cat population and keep them from strolling the shopping mall.
Garlinghouse said ABay Kitties has actually always had a great relationship with Alex & Baldwin. But it was not through the company, but a social media post on April 2, that she found out about the one complaint regarding the nēnē eating cat food at the Waikōloa property.
After learning about the complaint, she said the volunteers at ABay Kitties changed the feeding times from 4 p.m. to after-hours. She also volunteered to build nēnē-proof feeding stations, however, the Department of Land and Natural Resources didn’t take her up on the offer.
Garlinghouse said volunteers feeding the cats are not intentionally feeding the nēnē.
While the indigenous goose is found at a variety of elevations and habitats, Garlinghouse said in the years she’s been feeding the cats, she hasn’t known the birds to be permanent residents of the area by the shopping center, describing it as a baron lava field.
Feral cats, as well as dogs and mongoose, are considered predators to the nēnē. The endangered birds also have been killed by being run over by vehicles.
The nēnē, who like the manicured greenery of golf courses, also have suffered injury or death by errant golf balls or accidental collisions with golf carts on the Big Island. Linda Elliott, president of the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center Linda Elliott, told Spectrum News in September 2022 that 40 nēnē had been injured on golf courses in the state in the first nine months of that year.
Garlinghouse said she’s an “animal person” and doesn’t want to harm the nēnē, but questions why the cats are being singled out and thinks it might be about furthering an agenda to get rid of free-strolling cats.
In 2022, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature was considering House Bill 1987 that had a goal of eliminating the feral cat populations on the Big Island, Kauaʻi and Maui, and reducing Oʻahuʻs population by 50%, by the end of 2024. But after overwhelming opposition to eradication that including poison bait methods, the bill was deferred.
Kanalu Sproat, a biologist with the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said nēnē historically nest in the wetlands and marshes. He is unaware of searches done in the area behind Queens’ Marketplace for nēnē nests.
He said the endangered birds are getting habituated to the area. One day earlier, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources shot video that showed several nēnē around the feeding station.
But at this time, Sproat said the state has no plans to address this problem, other than to stop the feeding at this one location.
Kayla Tano, who was at the parking lot with her 4-year-old son, said: “Starving cats is not an answer. There has to be a better solution.”
The state officials said they, too, do not want the cats to starve to death.
Sproat said he knows there is not an easy solution because there are free-roaming cats everywhere that are being fed.
Alexander & Baldwin was given until April 25 to remove the cat-feeding stations.
“If Alexander & Baldwin does not comply with the Department of Land and Natural Resources directive to remove the cat-feeding stations from its property, and prohibit further feeding, it could face penalties for illegal take of a protected species,” said a letter sent to Alexander & Baldwin by Dawn Chang, chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
But in a statement, Alexander & Baldwin said it intends to meet the deadline: “We’ve notified the organization that feeds the feral cats in the Waikōloa Beach Resort community to remove the stations they maintain. If the stations are not removed, the Company will remove them to ensure A&B does not violate the law or risk penalties under Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 195D.”
The Department of Land and Natural Resources also has suggested that action be taken to capture feral cats and remove them from the landscape because they pose a threat to nēnē and other native wildlife through direct predation and spreading toxoplasmosis, a parasite found in cat feces.
This disease is one of the main threats and leading causes of death facing the endangered Hawaiian monk seal population in the main Hawaiian Islands.
“While we recognize that some members of the community feel a strong attachment to feral cats, DLNR’s mission and mandate is to protect and preserve these endangered and endemic species,” Chang’s letter said. “… We hope the people of Hawaiʻi will help by keeping all cats inside, adopting if they can provide safe indoor homes, and not putting food outside that our native wildlife might eat.”
But the Department of Land and Natural Resources did not say what should be done with the cats who now hang out at the shopping center, or how simply not feeding them solves the problem.
Dennison said the state can’t mandate what is done with the cats because cats are not in its jurisdiction.
That would fall to the county and its new Animal Control and Protection Agency.
The Hawaiʻi Island Humane Society, in a Facebook post, weighed in, saying the solution to the problem was not simply removing the feeding stations.
The post said: “The topic of community or ‘free-roaming’ cats can be a multi-faceted concern that draws opinions from many interest groups, including cat caretakers, public health officials, wildlife agencies, environmental conservationists and more. There can be solutions that prioritize the protection of our native and endemic wildlife while also promoting the humane and effective reduction of the population of free-roaming/community cats.”
The humane society, which does not manage the colony, said it is not a realistic solution to relocate community cats to a shelter or rescue group because there is not the capacity to do so. It also said implementing a feeding ban and humane euthanasia aren’t effective solutions either.
According to the Humane Society of the United States: “When cats are removed, unmanaged cats from surrounding areas may move in to take advantage of the newly available resources. The cycle of reproduction and ‘nuisance behavior’ begins all over again.”
Feeding bans, including the removal of feeding stations, also are illogical because it will not force cats to go away, however rather make them more difficult to manage.
John Niski of Waikōloa, who came to support his friends with two bags of food and three jugs of water, said once the cats stop getting fed, they will go into the resort and get into trash and kill other animals.
The gentle society concurs: “It will also force cats to forage through the trash and become a greater threat to wildlife,” the Facebook post specified. “Feeding stations are essential to the effective and humane management of free-roaming cats.”
