HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0777.011 1996-1998
a
_ RECEIVED
1Rme.._(_. By
U
County Council
HAWAII ISLAND
14UMANE
SOCIETY
March 30, 1998
Councilmember J. Curtis Tyler, III
County of Hawaii
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, HI 96720
Dear Councilmember Tyler:
The attached information is provided in response to the correspondence
received by the council regarding the Hawaii Island Humane Society (HIHS).
There are two components:
• Per your request that HIHS address the 12 letters you forwarded to me
submitted by 10 individuals and one company which contain 45 allegations,
many of which are repeated by several of the writers, I have enclosed a table
which include the specific allegations/concems, the HIHS response, and the
supportive documents which can be made available for your review if you so
desire.
• Our responses to the primary issues or concerns were categorized into the
following three areas:
1. Administrative Issues - those issues which are related to how the HIHS
performs activities - for this, the HIHS is responsible - 34 of the 45
allegations fall into this category.
2. Contractual Issues - those issues pertaining to concerns directly related to
provisions of our animal control contract with the county and which would be
the purview of the County Council to take action, 7 of the 45 allegations fall
into this category.
3. Philosophical Issues - differences in opinions regarding philosophy 2 of the
allegations fall into this category.
Q'L2,;~y
AFFILIATE MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION
74-5225 Queen Kaahumanu Hwy • Kailua-Kona, HI 96740 • Telephone (808) 329-1175 Fax (808) 329-4618
Keaau (808) 966-5458 • Kamuela (808) 885-4558
iw
Councilmember J. Curtis Tyler III
March 30, 1998
Page 2
We have also included correspondence received to date from people who have
expressed their personal experiences and opinions of HIHS.
Please do not hesitate to call me at 329-8002 if you have any questions.
Very truly yours,
s D Fowler
Executive Director
r cc: Councilmember John Ray
Mayor Stephen Yamashiro
HIHS Board of Directors
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Y \
AUG. 5, 1990
TO: RUSSEL KOKOBUN AND ALL COUNCIL MEMBERS
FROM: GINGER TOWLE, PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER W.H.H.S.
SUBJECT: WEST HAWAII HUMANE SOCIETY AND POUND CONTRACT
REASONS FOR REJECTING THE CONTRACT ARE:
1. CONTRACT CALLS FOR PAYING THE COUNTY $2.50 PER DAY BOARD
FOR AN ANIMAL KEPT MORE THAN 48 HOURS AND THIS WOULD
INCLUDE LICENSED DOGS AFTER THE 7 DAYS IF THE OWNER DID
NOT REDEEM THE DOG AFTER NOTIFICATION.
W.H.H.S. FEELS THAT THE TIME AND MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS
MADE BY THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD AND W.H.H.S. SHOULD BE
MORE THAN ENOUGH COMPENSATION FOR KEEPING A FEW SPECIAL
ANIMALS FOR ADOPTION. I PERSONALLY AM ON CALL AT ALL
TIMES AND HAVE WORKED AS A KENNEL PERSON AND ASSISTED IN
KILLING AS WELL AS AN ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER IN WAIMEA
AND KONA THE PAST 2 YEARS BECAUSE WE DID NOT HAVE AND
COULD NOT HIRE QUALIFIED STAFF AND WE HAD A COMMITMENT TO
THE COMMUNITY AND THE CONTRACT TO ENFORCE THE LAWS. JAN
BILTOFT HAS WORKED AS TREASURER AND SET UP OUR RECORDS ON
COMPUTER AND DONE ALL THE PURCHASING. CHARLIE BILTOFT AS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HAS ASSISTED IN RECORD KEEPING AND
FACILITIES MANAGER, KENNEL PERSON, ASSISTED IN KILLING
AND GOFER FOR ANY JOB NEEDED, INCLUDING NIGHT CALLS.
WANDA BRENNER AS ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ALSO AS KENNEL
PERSON WHEN NEEDED DUE TO PERSONNEL SHORTAGE. CURRENTLY
W.H.H.S. HAS ADDED $50,000.00 WORTH OF IMPROVEMENTS TO
THE COUNTY FACILITY AND HAD PLANS TO ADD A CAT ROOM AWAY
FROM THE DOG KENNEL AREA, AN EDUCATION BUILDING AND A
SPAY/NEUTER BUILDING. THIS WOULD HAVE ALL BEEN AT NO
COST TO THE COUNTY.
2. HOURS REQUIRED TO BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AT BOTH KONA AND
WAIMEA SHELTERS WOULD HAVE TO BE 9:00 A.M. TO 3:30 P.M.
MONDAY THRU SATURDAY.
THIS REQUEST IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MEET WITH THE
LIMITED STAFF AND A NONEXISTENT LABOR MARKET. THE STAFF
NEEDS TIME TO NOT ONLY GET FACILITIES CLEANED UP BUT TIME
TO DO THE PAPER WORK.
3. PICKING UP DEAD ANIMALS AND BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR
DISEASED AND INJURED LIVESTOCK.
HUMANE SOCIETIES DEAL WITH LIVE ANIMALS AND THE HIGHWAY
DEPARTMENTS DEAL WITH REFUSE ALONG THE HIGHWAYS. MORE
IMPORTANTLY WE DO NOT HAVE STAFF ENOUGH AS IT IS TO
PATROL AND DO NECESSARY ANIMAL CONTROL AND ENFORCEMENT.
WE DO CRUELTY INVESTIGATIONS ON ANY ANIMALS LARGE OR
SMALL AND HAVE IN THE PAST AND WOULD CONTINUE TO ASSIST
IN LARGE ANIMAL EMERGENCIES, WE SIMPLY ARE NOT EQUIPPED
TO HANDLE DEAD LIVESTOCK.
4. SWAPPING KAU FOR HAMAKUA.AREAS.
THIS WOULD SEEM LOGICAL BECAUSE WE DO HAVE A SHELTER IN
WAIMEA. HOWEVER, THERE AGAIN WE DO NOT HAVE THE STAFF.
WE HAVE ONE MAN WHO WORKS 7 DAYS A WEEK.
PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT FOR MORE DETAILED EXPLANATIONS.
1"Al
UAMAE
67TH YEAR NO.' ]76 _ HILO, HAWAII FRIDAY; :JULY 27, 1990 -
Animal
shelters
dispute
W. Hawaii Humane
Society won't sign
new county contract
By Jim Witty
Tn'b,mo-Herald
The West Hawaii Humane Soci-
ety plans to stop operating the
Kailua and Waimea animal shel-
ters in September.
Citing "burnout" and irrecon-
cilable differences with Hawaii
County over the content of a new
proposed contract, society presi-
dent Ginger Towle said yester-
day the executive board has
decided to call it quits.
"The Humane Society will
have nothing more to do with the
pound facility here," Towle said.
"I'm not going to do it anymore
no matter what the county does."
officials of the Hawaii Island
Humane Society based in East
Hawaii, which tuns the shelter,in
li Keaau, have accepted a similar
contract, according to Assistant
Chief Glenn Todd of the Hawaii
County Police Department.
The problem is not budgetary;
the county earmarked $233,000
for the West Hawaii shelters this
year, up from $158,000 in the last
contract, Towle said.
Rather, the board balked at a
new contract provision requiring
the five shelter workers to pick
up diseased or injured livestock,
claiming such duties would tax
the small staff beyond its limits.
"I won't put my name to
anything Ican't do and do well,"
Towle said. "It's nonsense."
But it was the so-called 48-hour
rule that really set her off.
"The thing that angers me ,
more than anything is that 1'd
have to pay $2.50 a day board if I
wanted to keep any animals
around (more than) 48 hours,"
li she said. 'Yeah. we keep some
special ones (for adoption). I've
made no bones about it But does
it really matter which dog w'e're
feeding"'
Towle balks at what she feels is
a restrictive time constraint
"I con t think 48 hours gives
See ANIMAL SHELTERS,
Page 8
L°C; JZU- IUBYmu,ccJ
7
Wes Hawaii Humane Society
P.O. Box 2695 Kailua-Kona, Hawa;; ; G745 (808) 329.1175
June 26, 1990
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE
COUNTY OF HAWAII
Mr. Barry Mizuno 25 Aupuni St.
Finance Department Hilo, Hawaii 96720
County of Hawaii
25 Aupuni Street JUN 2 9 1990
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Dear Mr. Mizuno:
At'our meeting on May 23rd you were quite adamant about the
new contract requirement of killing any animal after the
minimum required time to be kept under the law. Unless of
course the Humane Society came up with $2.50 board fee per
day to be paid to the County. Unfortunately the Humane
Society does not have the funds for such boarding fees let
alone the staff to handle the record keeping. The minimum
length of stay for a privately owned animal is 0 days which
means it would be killed the day it came in no matter how
beautiful, spayed or neutered etc. Stray animals in 48 hours
and dogs with licenses after 7 days of advising the owner
would also then be killed. I'm sure the people wl:o redeemed
their dogs from 1 to 27 days past the minimum length of stay
this past year would not be very supportive of your new
policy. The total reuemption fees, paid to the County,
amounted to.$1,076.00. Don't you feel this income would
offset any expense incurred in keeping a few special animals
for adoption? Under your new program it will be a shame that
so many special adoptable as well as redeemable animals would
be destroyed. Yes, this is County funded and for this reason
the residents should have the opportunity to adopt special
animals. From comments we've received the consensus is the
residents of West Hawaii do not want a strictly kill shelter.
am constantly having to explain why it is necessary to kill
animals at all; but the fact that we do save some special
ones for adoptions does make a difference. Just to have a
kill shelter with no redeeming features is a waste of
taxpayers money, there should be something positive about the
facility or we will have even more animals abandoned along
the highways or at the dumps. Have you talked to anyone at
all and gotten their reaction as to how they would feel about
a strictly kill type pound?
IIave you given any thought as to how stressful it is to have
to kill beautiful animals whose only crime is being born into
a world where there are already too many? Killing animals is
not like dumping surplus paper goods in which you're
overstocked. Are you aware of the suicides, nervous
breakdowns and just plain burnout associated with staff who
work with euthanasia? These cases are well documented by the
American Humane Society. How ijgI4la you feel to have to do
this job? There has to be some positive aspects in this type
of work for employees to maintain their emotional wellbeing.
This is imperative if you want to retain qualified personnel.
Considering the problem in trying to hire people w.ch the
current labor shortage and considering also the fact that
doing this type of work is not usually very high on anyone's
career path it would seem doubly important that the staff has
an optimistic view of their job.
I belive a concern that warrants a higher priority would be a
mandatory spay/neuter program for any dog or cat that is
adopted from any facility receiving funds from the County.
Especially in view of a Resolution passed by the County
council on February 21, 1984 directing both Humane Societies
to do something about the latge number of stray and
unsterilized dogs and cats which is a major contributing
factor to the increasing number of unwanted and uncared for
cats and dogs in the County of Hawaii. At present West
Hawaii Humane Society has to kill puppies that are progeny of
dogs purchased from East Hawaii Humane Society.... litters of
6 to 10 at a time come in to us with the owners defiantly
proclaiming they can get any dog they want to from East
Hawaii Humane Society and do not have to spay or neuter. It
seems incongruous to me that the County would finance any
organization that is contributing to the problem, and not
trying to be a part of the solution by requiring spaying and
neutering in view of the continuing and grpwing problem of
the dog and cat population explosion. Why, considering the
problem, thb resolution by the Council and H.R.S. 143-8 would
you not consider making mandatory spay/neuter at our shelters
a part of the contract?
A previous Finance Director complained to us that we were not
selling enough licenses. Thus came about our adoption
application form which inquires as to the number of dogs
already owned by the applicant and requiring them to buy
licenses for them before being permitted to adopt another
animal. At this time the mandatory spay/neuter policy is
explained. Adult animals to be spayed or neutered
immediately and puppies and kittens when they reached 6 or 7
months of age. This requirement is supported by state law,
H.R.S.143-8 which stags that we may spay or neuter the dog
prior to sale or require it to be done. There is a fine of
$50.00 for not complying. I plan to lobby the state to
include cats under this section also.
The hours required to be open are not realistic considering
the number of staff as well as the jobs to be done before the
public comes into the s4rlt~r. At present we have over 70
d')g attack cases we are 2} ~ g to monitor. This requires the
attention of one officer afyJT"time plus she investigates
cruelty cases and all new cases in both these areas. With
only 6 employees (and even if we hire 2 more) having both
shelters open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 P.M. with the facilities
open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 P.M. is impossible.
Who decided that these should be the hours?
Section 4-9 of Hawaii County law states that the county will
assure that county funds are being spent for public purposes.
I feel that maintaining a few special animals for the public
to adopt is meeting that requirement. In addition the county
has had its facilities improved at no cost to them by
fundraisers and donations made to the Humane Society. These
improvements include 12 new kennels, a storage area, improved
euthanasia area, laundry area, and pan washing area. In
addition to the physical improvements the county has
benefited by the many volunteer hours of the administrative
staff which includes complete shelter management as well as
accounting and general maintenance. An active education
program is our number one priority as education is the key if
-e are ever to improve the lot of animals and reduce the
number of uncared for and unwanted dogs and cats. People
have got to realize they are not throw away items. If we
don't change the attitudes of people we will just have to
deal with the symptoms and contihue to kill increasingly
larger numbers for ever and ever. I feel we should all be
working toward being part of the solution, not a continuing
part of the problem.
Do you not feel that all the time and money donated by the
volunteer administrative staff plus the improvements made tS
County facil_ty more than compensate for a few special
animals kept for adoption? We are not talking about saving
everyth=..g that comes through the door, check out figures for
the numbers we kill each month. It is the exceptional
animals we are talking about...spayed/neutered, purebred etc.
Have you considered the cost of a paid administrative staff
if we weren't doing the job for free?
Giving us the Hamakua area in lieu of Kau may seem practical
in view of the fact that there is a shelter in Waimea.
However, as I had mentioned before this is a very small
facility with one man working 7 days a week and Mondays and
Fridays he is in Kona. All investigations of dog attacks or
cruelty will be done by the Kona office. Our Waimea man is
an Associate officer which means he takes the information and
assists but does not write citations etc. The Waimea
Shelter, at this time, due to lack of staff, is basically a
holding facility for animals turned in from that area. If
the population in Hamakua is far larger than the Kau area we
will be impacted further due to the rapidly increasing
population in West Hawaii. Why was this swap of Kau for
Hamakua not ever discussed with us before the May 23rd
meeting where nothing was up for negotiation? Years ago when
we had more staff.at the Waimea Shelter I had suggested to
Maile Tate that we swap Pahala and Naalehu for the Honokaa
area, however, they did not want to do so at that time. My
concern now is population. If Hamakua is more heavily
populated and I know it also is experiencing considerable
growth we will have even more problems trying to cover the
area without more officers.
I also must again voice my objections to being responsible
for picking up dead animals. We should only be dealing with
live animals, we have more than we can handle just dealing
with the problems created by them. I had spoken to Bruce
McClure about this already and the highway department does
have refuse cre This is done on Oahu by the highway
departments. Who in particular feel we should continue with
this chore?
When you add livestock to the list of our responsibilities
which includes sheltering and the disposing of diseased or
injured livestock, this places a responsibility on us that I
do not feel we are equipped to handle. We do not have the
equipme:.'. or staff to handle dead livestock. Whose idea was
this?-
I'm addressing these concerns to you directly because I need
some answers and you were the one most insistent on all the
provisions of the new proposed contract being accepted as is
and as you also stated, when I commented that the Council had
approved ou'r budget, that you had total and complete control
over the funds, you could give all to East Hawaii Humane
Society or all to West Hawaii Humane Society or none at all.
Is this a new County policy? Do the Mayor and County Council
no longer have any say so in the disbursement of county
funds?
i
S n e~ ely
Gy' n er ow le
r sid t & General Manager
n r
J. Curtis Tyler, III
Council Member • District 8 (North Kona) • County of Hawaii
25 Aupuni Street • Hilo • Hawai'i • 96720
Tel: (808) 961-8273 Fax: (808) 969-3291
77-6399 Nalani Street • Kailua-Kona • Hawai'i • 96740
Tel: (808) 326-5684 Fax: (808) 326-5697 Email: cckona@interpac.net
March 21, 1998 VIA FACSIMI 329-4618
Christina Skaggs, President
Hawai'i Island Humane Society (HIHS)
74-5225 Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Thank you for the invitation to attend your regular board meeting today.
Unfortunately, due to a previously scheduled commitment, I am unable to be
present.
Nevertheless, as requested by your Executive Director, Lisa Fowler, via phone
yesterday, I am transmitting copies of third party correspondence I have
received pertaining to the West Hawai'i Shelter. The parties and dates of
writing are as follows:
Diane Chamberlain (undated)
Pet Medical Center (1/16/98)
Victoria Kibler (1/21/98) 3 pages
Donna Grimes (1 /22/98)
Linda Grimes (undated)
Roberta Agre (1 /29/98)
Mariette Von Hove (2/4/98)
Madelyn Barrea (2/4/98) 3 pages
Ronald Sakata (2/5/98)
Lorie Combs (2/10/98)
Roberta Agre (3/4/98) * 2 pages
Jim Rath (3/20/98)
The three items with an asterisk denote copies I recently received either
directly by fax, letter, or from my council aide. The others were received on
3/19 from Mr. Reynolds' council aide as part of a 3/16 request I made to his
office, following my 3/13 meeting with Ms. Fowler, Joane Nordstrom, and the
shelter's treasurer.
Part of the correspona~.,ice I received on that date were copies of various 1997
letters to and from the HIHS Board of Directors regarding complaints. I am not
including those with this transmittal inasmuch as they appear to already be in
your possession.
In addition to the above, Mrs. Ginger Towle has called or directly spoken with
me on three or four occasions regarding her concerns about the shelter. I have
requested that she provide me with specific information to corroborate those
concerns; she has told me she will do so, however, to date, I have not received
anything in writing from her.
It is important to note that, with the exception of the three letters mentioned
above, all of the others were previously unknown to me, even though at least
one (Pet Center) was actually addressed to me by name.
At this time, I am not sure what, if any, other information may have been
received by other council members or their staff members, but I will be
following up on this shortly. In the meantime, if you need more information in
that regard, you may contact them directly.
In reviewing the subject correspondence, it is apparent that some persons
believe the West Hawai'i Shelter is not being managed in accordance with the
County/HIHS contract. I have not had an opportunity to see or review that
document, but I will be requesting a copy from the Finance Director.
Since the West Hawai'i Shelter is located in the district I represent and
involves the use of public funds, the allegations of mismanagement directly
concern me. Therefore, I will appreciate receiving any and all information from
HIHS in response to these allegations. I regard this matter of utmost importance
and ask for a prompt answer to this request.
Thank you for your cooperation. If I can be of further assistance, please call my
council aide Leimomi at 961-8533.
Sincerely,
rtis Tyler, III
cc: All Council Members