Musings: Caterwauling

The coyotes have been coming around lately, circling in close, their spooky chorus of howls, yips and barks rousing me from sleep, waking primal memories of that age-old dynamic of predator and prey.

I'm in New Mexico, where coyotes hunt bunnies, cats and prairie dogs, and crows clean up the road kill.

On Kauai, the natural order is all screwed up. Endangered native birds are hunted by introduced cats, rats and barn owls. Wild cats and chickens are killed by cars, then ground into the pavement or left to bloat alongside the road. And the Kauai Humane Society staff routinely euthanizes an unending stream of kittens — offspring of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 wild felines that roam its forests and shores.

It's an ugly state of affairs that some folks would rather not face. So they've been caterwauling about the agency's euthanasia policies, blaming an “insensitive, inefficient” director and morally challenged staff rather than the real culprits: an ignorant populace, a feral cat population that has spiraled out of control and their own romantic notion that even a crappy life is better than death.

On Wednesday, the County Council will decide whether it wants to wade into that conflict when it considers a resolution to spend $150,000 on an audit of KHS.

It's disappointing, because that money could be much better used for spay-neuter and other animal welfare programs. Plus it shows the Council is catering to fanatics who are trying to impose a no-kill philosophy on what is now appropriately an open-door facility.

Council Chair Mel Rapozo, who introduced the resolution, might think an audit will get the crazies off his back. It won't. The no-kill extremists attacking KHS and director Penny Cistaro won't be happy until they control the shelter and burn Penny at the stake for the murder — sob —of two Salt Pond kittens.

Over the past few months, the local newspaper has published a spate of articles and letters from disgruntled employees and residents who have made a number of outrageous allegations against Penny and KHS. 

Most recently, it was Christopher Schaefer — who last surfaced to fight smart meters — claiming Penny actually prefers to kill animals rather than employ other, less costly measures.

Like, say, cast a magical spell that gives them all forever homes in paradise.

Let's look at the facts.

About 80 percent of the animals that come into KHS are picked up as strays. About 74 percent of the dogs are returned to their owners or placed in new homes.

Some 86 percent of the animals euthanized by KHS are either unsocialized feral cats or unweaned kittens.

Does that sound to you like an animal hater's murderous reign? 

The no-kill proponents, though trying to claim the moral high ground, are hiding their own dirty little secret, which is this: No-kill facilities can exist only because open-door facilities conduct euthanasia. No-kill facilities cherry-pick animals, accepting only those likely to be adopted. The rest are turned away. 

As for feral cats, their “solution” is to spay-neuter the ones they can catch and pretend the rest don't exist. Those that are fixed are released into poorly managed colonies — some of them near native bird nesting grounds — where they are given food, but otherwise left to fend for themselves against cat fights, disease and cars.

If the Council wants to get involved, it should step up and start dealing with the feral cat issue. After all, the county funded the work of the Kauai Feral Cat Task Force, which called on the Council to:

Pass a comprehensive animal control ordinance that sets a goal of zero feral, abandoned and stray cats on the island by the year 2025.

Uh, so what are you guys waiting for? 2024?

Still, if the Council is keen to conduct an independent audit, how about taking on the Planning and Building departments?

I mean, it's not like they've actually reformed or anything since the Abuse Chronicles outlined all their misdeeds two years ago. The TVR/B&B/homestay issue is still a mess at Planning, and Building is still giving out those bogus “unsubstantial improvement” permits that allow folks to expand ground floor structures in the flood zone.

Might be something worth looking into there. If you dare.