The Hawaiian Humane Society is urging residents to look out for furry friends who may have wandered off during or after Hurricane Lala, as bad weather can often lead to an uptick in lost pets and runaway animals.
After the Kona lows in March, Vibrant Hawaiʻi received hundreds of service requests relating to pets across the state, including lost and found animals, as well as folks who were cut off from resources and did not have access to food or medication for their pets.
Animal advocates are worried the same could be seen in the days following Hurricane Lala.
Anna Neubauer, the President and CEO of the Hawaiian Humane Society, said her organization, as well as its partners on the other main islands, have dedicated systems for anyone looking to report a lost or found animal. She said March's storms were good lessons in what the staff could do to better prepare in the event of a disaster or emergency.
“Getting emergency lists put together, making sure we have staff that can come to each campus because people have different impacts to their own homes and families,” Neubauer told HPR. “So just really making sure that we're able to support not only the animals in our care, but our staff, volunteers, and of course our community. Because there's folks in need during the storm and we want to be there to help them as much as possible.”
Both the Oʻahu humane society campuses lost power at one point over the weekend, but staff and volunteers prepared ahead of the storm by stocking pet food, transferring vaccinations to manually refrigerated areas and getting toys ready to keep the animals calm.
Neubauer said one major improvement HHS is trying to make is its ability to communicate while power is out, as they relied heavily on social media this past weekend.
“I think that’s a really important investment because people are scared, they don't know what to do if they've lost their pet or if they've found a scared animal, and so we want to make sure folks can contact us and call us no matter what,” she said.
Neubauer pointed to the HHS tips and instructions to prepare for future disasters, including getting pets microchipped so that they can be tracked.
