Hawaii Island Humane Society contract with county reworked

KAILUA-KONA — A mobile van to bring spay and neuter services into rural areas, nearly $100,000 for more spay-neuter coupons and the deletion of contract language that appears to encourage the killing of animals.

The first item is merely under discussion, but the second two are concrete changes to the Hawaii Island Humane Society contract with the county.

Put forth by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, the addition of $99,000 to the society’s annual $1.98 million animal control contract will increase the number of spay-neuter coupons given away annually by 80 percent.

Under the changes effective July 1, the contract will no longer list euthanasia to the tune of 14,000 animals each year as one of its performance measures. Instead, the society will be broadly tasked with euthanizing “unhealthy, untreatable and unadopted animals” according to the new language.

The change helps remove the impression at HIHS that “it has to do a lot of euthanizations to fulfill its contract and not violate it,” Wille said.

The language change follows recommendations that came out of a community meeting of rescue groups, residents and council members who reached a consensus in February that the current contract creates an incentive for euthanasia. HIHS executive director Donna Whitaker said Thursday that the society also requested the change to the misleading language.

Wille met with a member of the Humane Society board and Whitaker last week to begin forging a two-year plan for reducing animal overpopulation around the island without relying on sending unwanted dogs and cats to the happy hunting grounds.

Massive free clinics are one possibility, Wille said.

“There’s a movement across the U.S. where we want to focus on a more humane approach,” she said. “How can we find more homes and do more spay and neuter? It’s time to look at ways that other municipalities are doing it.”

Big Island Dog Rescue, which is at loggerheads with HIHS about euthanasia rates, is sponsoring a conference later this month led by Nathan Winograd, an author, filmmaker and animal advocate who directs the No Kill Advocacy Center in Oakland, Calif. Winograd is expected to offer strategies on how a community can implement the “no kill” paradigm during the June 25-26 conference. BIDR is raising funds through a gofundme.com campaign to bring Winograd to Kona.

“It’s gotten very divisive among some of the groups,” Wille said. “We have to move back to doing what we can to find common goals. Everyone agrees we have a massive overpopulation of feral animals. The question is how to address it.”

The additional money increases the animal control contract from $165,208 monthly to $173,468. Whitaker said the 5 percent increase throughout the course of a one-year supplemental agreement is the first since 2013. The money will be used entirely to fund 1,200 additional spay-neuter surgeries islandwide, she said, up to 2,720 from the current 1,520 annual coupons.

“Concerned residents ask us what needs to change to reduce euthanasia,” Whitaker said in an email. “Decreasing the number of unwanted animals immediately is how we turn things around. ‘Accidental’ litters are the single largest factor in pet overpopulation on our island. We cannot adopt our way out of pet overpopulation, but we absolutely can prevent these unwanted litters with spay/neuter.”

Wille said a mobile unit and highly publicized free events could be critical for increasing spaying and neutering, especially where people lack money for the surgeries or a way to get their animals to a clinic.

“Geography is a factor and our more rural, underserved communities of Puna, Ka‘u and Kohala do need more spay/neuter services,” Whitaker said. “In response, council member Margaret Wille and I have been discussing these needs and how they might be met in the future with a grant-funded, self-contained mobile spay-neuter van.”

Email Bret Yager at byager@westhawaiitoday.com.