Trapped in Paradise, a massive free spay and neuter campaign for cats, will take place in Hilo from July 17-22.
Animal Balance, a Portland, Ore.-based global nonprofit organization dedicated to creating community-based population management programs for dogs and cats, will join forces with Hui Pono Holoholona, Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary and the Hawaii Island Humane Society to sterilize up to 700 felines and provide vaccinations for free. The main focus will be strays but cat lovers are welcome to bring in their domesticated feline friends, as well.
The six-day operation will take place at the former Alii Ice Factory at 860 Piilani St., next door to Mardiart arts and crafts store. Cat drop-offs are from 8-9 a.m. and pickups between 5 and 6 p.m. daily. Call Hui Pono Holoholona at 968-8279 to make an appointment.
“Walk-ins are welcome, but we also need to get the word out of no food after midnight (for cats). Water is OK until the morning. And if there’s food left in humane traps (for strays) please leave it alone. We’ll deal with it when the cats come to us,” said Frannie Pueo, Hui Pono president, who added that for cats to be sterilized, they must weigh at least 2 pounds and be in good general health.
“And if they’re not, Hui Pono is going to take them in until they’re healthy enough to get spayed and neutered,” she said.
Originally, the goal was to sterilize about 500 cats. Pueo’s organization obtained a county grant of $15,631.46 to cover lodging, ground transportation and a portion of the medical supplies. Alley Cat Allies, the largest cat advocacy organization in the U.S., kicked in $10,255.36 to cover the remainder of the medical supplies bill. Airfare and food will be donated, as will the time and talents of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, assistants, cat trappers and other volunteers. If all were paid for, the total estimated budget would be in excess of $116,000.
“Because we think this is so fantastic for our community, we canceled two of our standard clinics for cats and gave $2,000 of our spay-neuter clinic fund to increase the number of cats to be done for free from 500 to hopefully 700,” Pueo said. “I use the analogy of Animal Balance as being ‘Veterinarians Without Borders.’ It’s just unbelievable how committed they are. To come to communities like ours to do what they do, it’s an emotional issue. It’s a community issue and it takes a community commitment to humanely resolve this animal overpopulation without hunting down animals to kill.”
Janet Snyder, spokeswoman for Mayor Harry Kim, agrees.
“This is a great program that is extremely humane and effective. We strongly support this kind of initiative,” Snyder said.
Emma Clifford, founder and director of Animal Balance, said there will be 22 people flying in for the mission, which she likened to “a military operation, essentially.”
“Five of those are cat trappers. They will be working the evening and nighttime shift, going out and mapping the areas,” Clifford said. “We’ve been talking with the people who’ve been feeding the cats in the areas, getting an idea of how many cats there are in each colony that they’re feeding. We’ve been mapping that into Google maps … so we can see where the large numbers are. We call that ‘targeted trap, neuter and return.’ We’re coming in and trapping where we know that there’s a high density.
“We want to make sure we spay and neuter all of these cats and return them so the population doesn’t increase. In fact, it will reduce over time.”
Clifford said local volunteers who routinely trap strays for spay-neuter clinics will help.
She continued the military analogy for the veterinary component of the operation, which she called a “MASH unit.”
“We call it a ‘mobile animal sterilization hospital,’ so we play off the name,” she said. “We bring in teams of veterinary techs and helpers and we create temporary animal hospitals. And that will vary in what it looks like. Sometimes, people give us old discos or old restaurants. Sometimes, we use churches. This time, we’re using the old ice factory in Hilo. And we have three high-volume spay-neuter veterinarians flying in. These vets are incredible. They go all over the world doing these kinds of campaigns and helping communities that maybe don’t have these kinds of resources. And they’re also super fast and super safe. So we should have the capacity to do well over 100 cats a day.
“Mayor Kim has donated the hotel for the team and our on-island transport for cats and humans and the community is pulling together to provide the team with food and drinks. The local (nonprofits) are fabulous and have rallied together to find everything that we will need, plus they have already prepared many of the sterile items that we will need for surgery, such as drapes and gauze. They have been working very hard indeed to prepare for this.”
Clifford stressed that Trapped in Paradise “is a community event.”
“We want people to feel comfortable coming by and talking to us about the cats and what we’re doing, and then encouraging them to learn how to trap cats and bring them in safely, and not harm themselves or the cat. We’re here for six days and we have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we just want to share it with everybody and encourage more of these clinics in the future.”
For more information, visit Animal Balance at www.animalbalance.org or Hui Pono Holoholona at www.hphhawaii.org.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
