HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0283.788 2024-2026From: Shaun Lindsey <hawaiifilmindustry@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 10:52 PM
To: Council Testimony, jameshustace@hawaiicounty.gov
Subject: OPPOSE BILL 51: RAT FACTS COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAI'I
RECEIVE
Aloha Council Members, Time 10',006-0t. ByD
Date JUL 2 2 2025
I am Shaun Lindsey, born on Maui and live on the Big Island
I am descended from the Lindsey and the Freitas families.
I am a hunter and have hunting dogs.
Before passing Bill 51, there are unintended consequences that are critical to consider.
If you make feeding the cats illegal and you eradicate the cats from that area, then the rodent
population will certainly multiply in those areas.
The solution to then eradicate the rodents is probably a toxic rat poison.
' Poisoning to eradicate the rats on this island between 1910 to 1945 was not effective enough to
eliminate the 3rd pandemic of the bubonic plague with the last human case in Hamakua in 1949.
There were a total of 112 cases of the plague with 109 deaths.
Take Note: When the plague emerged in Europe, a massive cat eradication had preceded that
pandemic.
Rats also carry Typhus along with many other diseases. There have been recent cases of typhus in
the US.
With Hawaii's history of the plague and other rat -carrying diseases, we must look at the cat feeders
and colony managers as an asset for keeping the rodent population down in those areas.
The issue with rat eradication and poison is that it will enter the food chain of our wildlife, the water
shed and would directly poison native species.
Shaun Lindsey
Comm. 6S ✓• �ba
Ief. To:��_ 1
Ref. gate 2 3 20[5