Letters 7-31-2012

Feral animals

A cat lover’s lament

There are many who simply despise cats. But all of this nonsense about how cats carry rabies, that cats smell terrible, and the feral population is totally out of control needs to be clarified to understand the situation because we have much to do with why the problem is now so large.

We do not have rabies in Hawaii. So please drop this thought. Those of you who have complained probably don’t know this because they never had to go through the difficult process of bringing a family pet over to the islands. The state has extremely tough laws when it comes to allowing animals into the islands.

When the animal arrives to be inspected thoroughly by the State Agricultural Department, it’s probably the cleanest and healthiest it will ever be in its life. It has papers from its vet indicating so and a high price has been paid by the animal’s owner to allow bringing the animal in. These animals are the lucky ones. They get to come over and continue to live with a loving family who wouldn’t dream of ever leaving them behind.

There are many people here who don’t care to share their Aloha spirit when it comes to our feral cats or cats in general. Some simply can’t stand felines. So they complain loudly, write the paper and do nothing else. There are those on this island who own cats, let them live around the house for a while, and then, if the poor creature doesn’t perform the way they expected it to (as in catching mice or rats), they take it in the car for a nice drive and drop it off somewhere never to be seen again.

You know who you are. Usually, this drop off place is at Old Kona Airport. If you’ve ever taken a walk there, you will see many cats looking lost and rejected, starving, hurt because some pathetic uneducated idiot decided to shoot them in the eye with a BB gun, leaving them to bleed to death while others get wounded in other ways, perhaps by a hungry stray angry dog or by a car, or by teenagers “just messing around.” I’ve seen animals down there with tails, eyes, teeth and ears missing, and missing the love of the person who dropped them off.

What do people expect an animal to do? When this happens the animal must forage on its own for survival, feral or not.

Then there are those cats born to cats who are also feral, creating yet another long, long lineage of homeless ferals.Maybe those of you who hate felines can look these animals in the eye and easily say “get lost,” but I am not one of them. I look at them with sympathy and love and wish I could take care of them all. But I can’t.

I admire so much the people who do try to take care of the ferals by feeding them a few nuggets of kibble each day, or organizations like AdvoCATS who have done more for our feral cat population than any other I know of. These are the people who are the real heros of our island. Not the complainers who sit and do nothing but moan about a situation they know nothing about. There are wonderful gals like Mary Reynolds and Nancy Hitzeman on this island who devote their time, energy, love and money to helping the feral population and to them I say thank you with all my heart and soul for being there to help.

I think it will help many animals (and people) if the police patrolled Old Kona Airport at night. In doing so, we might eliminate the BB gun shootings on innocent animal victims. Do we want to teach our children that it’s okay to shoot at a helpless starving animal? I don’t think so. Yet this tragedy happens all the time.

As for cats smelling? Well, let’s get real. I don’t know when you last smelled a human living in the wild, but mee-ow.

While on the subject, when was the last time you tried using one of the bathrooms down at Old Kona Airport? Now that’s definitely an odor that gives and keeps on giving. It was no cat that deposited that smelly treasure —and furthermore, a feral cat would’ve flushed because of its instinctive cleanliness.

Let’s leave all innocent creatures alone, feral or not. Try treating an animal with love and respect, not hate. After all, we all have issues in our lives that we do not like.

Instead of griping, try helping. Donate a small amount to AdvoCATS and feel good about yourself instead of being so hateful towards these animals all the time.

AdvoCATS is the organization that does the most in humanely cleansing the island of ferals by capturing them, attending to them medically, believe in spaying and neutering them, and then adopting them out to loving owners who sincerely and genuinely care.

As for those who can’t afford a bag of kibble yet somehow find a way to scrape enough pennies together to do so, may God bless you for having such a big, beautiful, and wonderful heart in trying to give these helpless creatures a small bite to eat.

Please, leave the feral cats alone. They are only trying to make their way through life, just like the rest of us. They don’t want to be where they are. Yet fate and many noncaring humans, have placed them in a horrific no-win situation.

Please, please think before you complain or harm an innocent animal. I mean, dude, seriously, it’s really bad karma.

Sheila Mason

Kailua-Kona