By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A group that has been feeding, neutering and tending to the veterinary needs of a cat colony at the Keaau Transfer Station has been given a temporary reprieve from an order to remove the animal feeders and cats.
Hui Pono Holoholona, a nonprofit animal sanctuary whose volunteers have taken care of the felines at the rubbish facility since 2007, had been given until today to stop feeding the animals under terms of a new lease deal between the county and landowner W.H. Shipman Ltd.
Hui Pono President Frannie Pueo, who was informed on June 13 about the new lease, which starts Monday, had earlier called the clause “inhumane” and said she wasn’t given enough time to relocate the cats.
“Shipman’s given me a little leeway to try to give Frannie time to move the cats, so she has until the end of September,” Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, head of the Department of Environmental Management, said last week.
Said Pueo: “We are so thankful for this additional time, even though we are fighting to keep our program to exist there, because the need is there.”
The solid waste facility is on 10 acres of Shipman property, which the county leases at $2,500 a year. The new lease is on a year-to-year basis, with renewable options up to June 30, 2018, Leithead Todd said.
Kimo Lee, Shipman’s director of development, earlier this month described the no-feeding clause as “standard” in the landowner’s leases, saying the company doesn’t want feral animals on any of its properties.
Had the county not agreed to lease terms, Leithead Todd said, Keaau-area residents wanting to legally dump their refuse would have to drive to the Hilo landfill or Pahoa or Glenwood transfer stations while another site was found.
“We’d have to identify a piece of property. We would probably have to do an environmental assessment, possibly a full-blown (Environmental Impact Study). And then we would have to look at money to acquire the property,” she said. “And based on what it cost us to re-do Pahoa, then you would be looking at a minimum — in addition to acquisition costs — of probably of about $3.5 million.
“Our lease agreement with Shipman requires us to return the property to the condition it was before. In other words, we would have to remove our improvements. We have to return it to a piece of property that they could turn around and lease to somebody else.” That would include removal of a concrete wall and rubbish chutes, she said.
Pueo said that her shelter “was already in the process to remove quite a few of the cats.”
“By abiding with our verbal agreement with the Solid Waste Division chief (Greg Goodale), we are keeping the colonies at a minimum,” she said. “Our long-term goal is to adopt these animals out, but the ones we can’t, we were already going to move them. But we already know it’s impossible to capture all of them, and more so within this particular time.”
Pueo said she still doesn’t understand why the cats have to be moved and called her group’s “trap, neuter, return and manage” policy for the felines “an excellent service that we provide, free of charge.”
“They’re doing a dynamic job of keeping the rats and mice population to zero. A rodent-control colony is what we’ve provided,” she said.
She said she hopes the county doesn’t return to a “round-up to kill” policy.
“We’re in the 21st Century. We should be embracing the scientific data that show that trap, neuter, return and manage is the most effective way to prevent animal overpopulation,” she said.
Pueo is asking for “the public’s help in everything” to help her humanely relocate as many animals as possible. She urged those who can assist to call her at 968-8279 or visit the group’s website at www.hphhawaii.org to donate.
“We need kennels, fencing, metal roofing, and any donations to help move some of them,” she said. “We need people to look at this. … It’s an impossible situation. These animals that are left behind are going to wind up starving. Is that what the community wants?”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.