The Hawaii Police Department is looking for more animal control employees a year after taking over duties.
In July 2021, HPD assumed responsibility over animal control services and currently manages two animal shelter facilities on the island, one in east Hawaii and one in west Hawaii.
Both shelters have remained full, with many animals getting transferred to nonprofit organizations for adoption.
“In general, there are always an abundance of animals, and we’re generally taking in more animals month to month,” said Hawaii County police major Aimee Wana. “While managing the shelters, we are also conducting more investigations on potential cases of neglect and abuse.”
While the minimum hold period for animals is 48 hours, between July 2021 and December 2021, the average length of stay in shelter per animal was 45 days.
Animal Control has been working with various technologies to help people reunite with their pets.
“If people put a photo of their pet on lost.petcolove.org, it can use facial recognition technology to match to photos we’ve taken of animals in the shelters,” Wana said. “We have a much higher number of animals being redeemed to their owner.”
As of January 2022, a new microchip law requires all pet owners to have microchip identification implanted in their dogs and cats, and to register the microchip number and the owner’s contact information with a microchip registration company.
The national registry www.foundanimals.org is a good site to register your pet’s microchip.
“We encourage everyone to keep their pets microchips up to date as it is the best way to find lost pets,” Wana said.
HPD is continuing to categorize Animal Control calls as Priority One, Two or Three.
Priority One calls involve injured animals, public safety risks, animal cruelty and situations in which an animal’s owner has been arrested or died with no family to pick up the animal. HPD requests that these calls be made to police dispatch at (808) 935-3311.
Priority Two calls, which pertain to lost or found pets and nonemergency issues, should be directed toward Animal Control staff at (808) 327-3558.
People who find healthy stray animals are encouraged to have the animal scanned for a microchip by an Animal Control officer (327-3558), at a veterinarian’s office, or by a local rescue group. People also can post about lost or stray animals at lost.petcolove.org, a national database of lost pets.
Priority Three calls pertain to deceased animals on the roadway and should be directed toward the county Department of Public Works at (808) 961-8349 or the state Department of Transportation at (808) 933-8866, depending on whether the road is a county or state road.
Animal Control staff continues to respond to Priority One calls 24 hours a day islandwide. Since July 2021, Animal Control has responded to 30 to 50 calls a day. An average of 20 of those calls require an immediate response.
Animal Control currently is seeking experienced kennel techs and Animal Control officers in both East and West Hawaii to help reach more animals quickly.
“It’s a great undertaking, and it’s not just law enforcement working, but also the employees at the shelters,” Wana said. “Every time we think we have it down, something changes. We are doing our best to continually improve services as quickly as we can.”
Recruitment for these contract positions will be forthcoming on the county website. In the interim, those interested in applying for positions can submit a resume to HPDAnimalControl@hawaiicounty.gov.
More information can be found at hawaiipolice.com.
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com.