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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0022.052 2004-2006 March ao, aoos HAWAII COUNTY COLkQCIL `iCj ~ a5 Aupuni St. Hilo, Hawaii 96720 llear l.ounty Council iviettiners. We are against Bi114, Dr~1ft 5 relating to Animal Control. There aze many things that need to be addressed before passing lsuch a bill. People need to address barking dogs within their own community and community/subdivision associations. Properties 19~>ught with covenant codes protect buyers from having to deal with crowing roosters, barking dogs and other problems. NO ONE addresses CATS and that is a BIG PKOBLEM for us as dog;owners of this cotmty. CATS aze allowed to run free, and there is no leash laws for cats. Them is nothing worse than waking up to hear cats fighting in the Huddle of the night or listening to tbm cats call in their mates. Our neighbor's cat nms on our stone wall enticing our dogs to bazk; and also poops in our yazd and in ow bonsai plants that causes our plants to die. There are giany cats left loose only to be seen flattened on the roads. How fair is rhat to animals? Dogs were meant to bazlq and there aze your first warning sign that someone is around your property that shouldn't b~ there. In this day of rising burglary rates, a dog(s) keeps people from coming on to your property that have no business being there. Our dogs are our burglaz alarms. We need them to bark whenever strangers park in front of our house on the county road and drinY, at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. We would not know they were out there if our dogs didn't bark. These drinkers brk bottles on the county road and leave their trash for us to clean up. People walk down ours eet at 4:00 a.m. and the dogs bark to alert us that someone is walking around at that hour. Wi the dogs; we feel safe. They give us an eazly warning sign that something isn't right. We think there aze more important things that the County Council needs to address at this time. Such as the traffic problems within the town of Waimea and 1Cailua-Kona. Lust because a few people complain about t~teir neighbors dogs doesn't give the County Council the right to change the law to benefit these ~'ew individuals. Perhaps the Community Associations in these communities with the b~.tldng dogs can address the problems, or the Community Police Officer can meet with the peopll}' involved (the complainant, and the owner of the dogs) to work out an agreement. Raising fees to bail out dugs at the Humane Society will only make the Humane Society's job harder and end up having to put more animals to sleep. Many people would not bail their dogs out if the fees are too high, perhaps breaking hearts of their children who love the dogs. People like that would probably just get another dog instead of paying to bail out the older one. More Comm. No. ZZ-. st. Ref. To: Ref, Uat~ dogs ending up in the she~Cer means more cost to the people of this County to support their animal control program. What is the County Council doing to address dogs being poisoned? Years back, 3 dogs in ow neighborhood were poiso ed with Parar{uat which has ao antidote. Thepoison was placed on a piece of steak which ow ¢~og threw up. My dog never left my yard which tells me that the steak was thrown inside my pra~erty. When we lost ow dog, it was just as bad as losing one of yow family members. We felt].so helpless. No one should ever suffer that kind of pain. We were bom and raised ~n the County of Hawaii, have been tax paying citizens of this County at1 ow lives. Now that wg are reaching ow retirement age, ow dogs have been ow family and our way of life. We woulkl never do without them. They are like family to us. We don't want ous la~~s changed to benefit the few complainers of this County. We were bom here, have lived here all ow lives, and wait to continue ow way of life without being told by newcomers to our island that is should be "paradise"---- swaying palm trees, no animals, no pig hunters, and no noise except for the waves, crashing on the seashores. We urge you not to pass Bi114, Draft 5 without having a committee of dog owners, cat owners, and chicken owners wor]{ing together to make a bill more liveable to the lifestyle of ow kamaainas of this Count}j. We also ask that the County Council address issues that will beneSt the majority and not hurt~the local lifestyle. We did not elect you to listen to a few people and change the laws to address only their concerns. Thank you. gjnce elel)r V v~ Sandy T. Sugiyama Diane Kimura-Sugiyama d dOZ=ZT SO dZ ~eW