Local residents remain divided about the best way to deal with Hawaiʻi's free-roaming cat population.
Representatives from conservancy groups, veterinary clinics and animal care organizations gathered at a public hearing last week to testify about proposed changes to Honolulu's public spay and neuter programs.
Neuter Now and Feline Fix, two long-established partnerships between the Hawaiian Humane Society and the City and County of Honolulu, have offered local pet owners an affordable way to fix their animals for years. Through these partnerships, low-income households can spay or neuter their pets at participating clinics across the island for only $20.
For those bringing in free-roaming cats, the service is completely free. Stray and feral cat feces have been known to cause toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that often proves fatal to endangered Hawaiian monk seals. Conservationists also say that these cats have a track record of killing native birds, making their rapidly growing population a serious ecological concern.
Advocates for Honolulu's public spay and neuter programs say that they are vital to controlling the free-roaming cat population, but also largely inaccessible.
“The city's veterinary rates are outdated and do not cover the cost of the modern surgery,” Colin Wolfert, a 16-year-old student at Saint Louis High School, said. “Because clinics are losing money every time they take a voucher, they are forced to back out of participating in these programs.”
He added that only nine clinics on Oʻahu currently participate. Others, like testifier Jason Carter's surgery-focused vet clinic, cannot afford to do so.
But new rules could expand access to spay and neuter services across the island.
Under these rules, clinics would be reimbursed for up to $450 for each service, depending on the species and sex of the animal. The rules would also give social service nonprofits the opportunity to purchase vouchers for homeless pet owners who might lack the documentation needed to qualify.
Support for these changes was consistent across the board at last week's hearing. Less-consistent was the response to how Honolulu intends to handle free-roaming cats post-treatment.
The Hawaiian Humane Society has historically supported a strategy referred to as Trap Neuter Return Manage, or TNRM. Through this approach, people trap free-roaming cats in their neighborhoods and bring them to participating clinics, where they are spayed or neutered.
While there, the cats are also ear-notched, vaccinated, and microchipped before being returned to wherever they were found. To some testifiers, that last step is also the most problematic.
“Sterilized cats, even fed colonies of them, will continue to hunt and kill our native birds,” Emma Shelly, a representative from the American Bird Conservancy, said. “Returning cats to the landscape is not humane. It’s not humane for the animals and our wildlife, it’s not humane for the cats.”
She was one of a handful of testifiers to call for the city to alter the proposed program rules so that public funding would not aid the release of free-roaming cats after treatment. The risks that these cats could pose to native birds and monk seals were among their chief concerns.
Jordan Lerma, former director of operations at Nēnē Research and Conservation, said that his organization has picked up hundreds of dead birds near cat colonies where TNRM activity has been taking place.
“I don't know how many more birds, honestly, I can pick up,” he said. “Sometimes I have my five-year-old daughter with me. We’re collecting carcasses, and it kills me — it kills us. I named my daughter after a Hawaiian seabird.”
For some testifiers, though, the deaths of these birds and monk seals are not reason enough to hold cats after treatment. Several individuals pointed out that local shelters are already overwhelmed and are in no position to take in more animals.
The alternative? According to Danic Gamboa, a TNMR advocate who works in mental health, it's most likely euthanasia.
“Nobody really wanted to address the fact that if you don’t release the cats back where they came from, what do you do with them?” she told HPR after the hearing. “They're not going to magically disappear into thin air. They’re going to get killed. Their life is going to end.”
Gamboa suggested that the cats instead be released into a designated area post-treatment, one that would be closely monitored — an idea that numerous testifiers brought up, often referencing the Lānaʻi Cat Sanctuary. The most common thread among TNRM advocates testifying in support of the programs, though, was a desire to see the cats released in any capacity.
“People are not going to trap cats to neuter them and kill them,” Chris Thompson, founder of a local cat-focused rescue, said. “Without returning the cats, colony caregivers have no point in working with the state, trying to get it fixed on their own dime. It just won’t work.”
Ultimately, no decision was reached. Honolulu Department of Customer Services Director Kim Hashiro said that hundreds of people have submitted written testimony, which the city will examine before making a decision at the end of this month.
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