Hawaiʻi County lawmakers and environmental advocates are pushing back against community members who want to continue feeding feral animals.
The county council is moving a bill to ban the practice on county property, despite swaths of testimony calling it inhumane and counterproductive to controlling feral populations.
But supporters of the bill warn that feral species hurt native and endemic ones, either by preying on them, transmitting diseases, or changing the environment.
Councilmember Rebecca Villegas has been vocal about the need to control those species, especially colonies of feral cats.
“ They're not community cats, they're a feral species that’s overrun an ecosystem, and native cultures and Indigenous peoples have historically been able to identify an imbalance in an ecosystem of any species," she said.
"We have the unique experience on this island that cats, yes, human-introduced problem, but if humans are perpetuating it, something has to be done to rebalance the system."
The council did amend the bill to allow caretakers certified by the county to continue feeding animals on county land. It also voted to push the bill's effective date to January.
