HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0283.310 2024-2026From:
Kristin Chiboucas
Co
Sent:
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 9:37 PM
c
To:
Council Testimony
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Subject:
OPPOSE Bill 51 !!!-<
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90
Dom'
Please OPPOSE Bill 51.
This proposed law is especially cruel, obtuse, and short sighted.
—
CO
Rather than trying to actually deal with the feral cat problem, you wish to make it worse, while also
directly causing animal suffering and starvation, ensuring more loss of birdlife by a desperate cat
population, ensuring that there are no colony caretakers who will be able to get the cats fixed and
thereby exponentially increasing the problem, ensuring that any sick cats will roam further and
spread more disease, and turning good samaritans into criminals. Sounds like a great idea, doesn't
it? Furthermore, you are also signing the death sentence for pet kitties who've been trapped and dumped
by malicious neighbors and will now be neglected at these dropped locations rather than noticed by
caring individuals who try to find the rightful homes of these lost pets.
I have seen firsthand what happens when a colony loses its caretaker. I witnessed a location refusing to
allow feeding on its property. After the colony caretakers (who had been doing a good job getting cats
fixed there) were scared off, the cat population did not diminish and it did not move on. Instead I
watched as the cats grew emaciated and sickly but continued to have kittens. With nobody to get those
kittens fixed, those kittens have just now had their first litters of kittens. It's a disaster! I rescued one of
the cats from that property which looked particularly bad. The vet was infuriated that an animal was
allowed to get to that level of starvation and called animal control to have them try to deal with the
managers of that location. That recovered sweet precious being now lives in my house, and is a
wonderful and friendly kitty. I also managed to nab one of the first group of kittens and got itfixed. In
order to get ahold of both of these kitties, I had to feed them a few times in order to gain their trust. This
bill would make any kind of rescue and any neutering/spaying illegal.
If your concern is nene, then a blanket law makes no sense. You should change this proposed law to
state that feeding is disallowed only on county land that is critical habitat for endangered species. Many
colonies are at transfer stations which most definitely are not critical habitat for ANYTHING, and if they
are, then you need to move your transfer stations! There is NO good reason to have a blanket law that
would disallow feeding at places like transfer stations. This helps NOBODY. Meanwhile, not feeding the
cats will. cause the populations to bloom exponentially. There is NO good reason for a blanket law that
requires caring people to turn a blind eye to suffering animals. In fact, this law would be a moral and
ethical abomination, cruel to both human and animal. It is insupportable by any but the most callous
beings.
This bill is so WRONG on so many levels. If you actually wanted to address the problem, rather than
blindly make it way worse, you would actually work with community colony caretakers and
animal rescue groups and support them with trap/neuter efforts which are critical for managing the cat
population. You could even consider giving permits to people to help with the colonies and then work
with those specific people on getting the cats fixed. That would at least be more sensible than this
absurd law. �.
Comm.
1 Pef. To: U25
Ref. rote
This bill solves nothing and only makes a bigger mess of the current situation while criminalizing
good and caring citizens. Remind yourselves what you are trying to solve with this bill. Then
consider if this bill is actually a solution. Then reject this bill and try to find a way to actually solve
the problem.
Don't make the situation worse.
Kristin Chiboucas, PhD - Hilo,,Hl