Great news for Nancy Charles-Parker and Ferol Kolons, cited for giving water and food to cats at Queens’ Marketplace on April 18th after a feeding ban had been put in place to protect endangered nēnē that had discovered the cats’ feeding stations.
Charles-Parker and Kolons were represented pro bono by their attorney, Susan Regeimbal, who agreed with Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Woodward when he moved to dismiss the case. He was quoted as saying “. . . the vast majority of cats have been relocated.”
Funds had been raised for both women’s legal defense by Kohala Animal Relocation and Education Services (KARES) and the founder of the organization, Debbie Cravatta, quoted in the article, stated “that money will go to animal rescue, pet food for shelters, spay neuter, veterinary services for stray animals, etc.”
That is good news for cats, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the Queens’ Marketplace cats. Although a West Hawaii Today article last week said that 64 cats had been adopted, the two rescue groups—AAO and HAKA—doing lots of hard work to capture, spay/neuter, vaccinate, and rehome the felines estimated there were still about 100 remaining. One hundred cats that aren’t getting food or water.
The rescue groups have said they will begin trapping again once they have more adopters lined up.
Thanks to West Hawaii Today for continuing to report on this story as it develops.
Local television station KITV 4 Island News broadcast the story linked below back in May. It takes a look at a group of volunteers caring for a colony of cats in Hilo, on the other side of the Big Island.
According to this story 64 cats have been captured at Queens’ Marketplace. They were spayed/neutered and vaccinated before going to adopters who will kennel the cats for a period of time until the felines become used to their new surroundings. Two rescue groups worked together on this first phase, Aloha Animal Oasis (AAO) and Hawaii Animal Kuleana Alliance (HAKA), and will resume trapping as they find homes for the cats. These groups need volunteers, donations, and of course, adopters!
This letter to the editor published yesterday June 7, 2023. Mr. Chraminski volunteers with AdvoCATS so he has firsthand experience with feeding and caring for a colony of cats.
Cat issue’ spreads
The feral cat issue has reached Keauhou Shopping Center area.
The AdvoCATS group has been leading cat feeders as part of their catch/neuter/ release program, and in the six years I have been a feeder, the population has declined — except not as fast as it should due to irresponsible cat owners dumping cats there.
Now Kamehameha Schools, the property owner, and mall management are making it a trespassing crime to continue feeding the cats.
Their solution is that now the 30 or so cats will wander the whole mall, starving, looking for handouts, and management will then scrape up the carcasses, I guess.
Where is all the animal-control money just allocated going, and why are they not leading to solutions including for cats, mongooses, pigs and goats that run feral all over town now?
Even trapping and euthanizing is more humane than starvation.
Below is an unpublished letter to the editor that I submitted to West Hawaii Today on May 15th. Note: I don’t know why my letter wasn’t published but I have noticed that the paper doesn’t print many letters from readers. I could have posted the text of my letter it in the comment section of one of the stories listed below but I preferred to publish it here along with links to all of the recent stories.
My first visit to Waikoloa Beach Resort (WBR) was in the early 2000s. Queens’ Marketplace was still on the drawing board and the lone nēnē I saw lived behind glass at the Hilton. Snorkelers, golfers, and stargazers all found something to love. And where we go, the cats follow.
Charmed by the loveliness of the Kohala Coast my husband and I became frequent visitors. I’m a landlubber at heart so I spent my time not on the beach but behind it visiting a colony of cats, talking to volunteers who took care of them. I also looked, in vain, for Hawaiian stilts, coots, and ducks, the native water birds that had once lived in and around the nearby fish and anchialine ponds. None of those endangered birds were found at WBR when the 1985 environmental impact study was drafted. The study mentioned the observation of one feral cat.
On my visits over the last couple of years I began to notice a few nēnē. It was a surprise since Hawai’i’s state bird had not been mentioned in the environmental impact study, but it was good to see that they were recovering, attracted not to the natural habitat but to grassy lawns and other landscaping at hotels and golf courses.
After my early April visit, the nēnē discovery of cat food in the Queen’s Marketplace parking lot made the news. The conflict that ensued resulted in a feeding ban. Volunteers are now working to capture and rehome cats.
I am concerned about the wellbeing and safety of the nēnē but I am haunted by the thought of starving cats that are also being denied water. Isn’t there a better way for us to resolve a situation that was created when we humans began to work and play here?
Paula Nixon Santa Fe, NM
Here are links to the four articles published by West Hawaii Today between April 25th and May 24th. The first three are what prompted my letter. The stories are behind a paywall but by signing up for a free digital subscription I think you can read up to seven articles a month.
Briefly, the issue is that a group of free-roaming cats lives behind Queens’ Marketplace in WBR. ABay Kitties is a nonprofit group that was providing food and water in the parking lot for the felines. Sometime in the last few weeks Hawai’i’s state bird called the nēnē (pronounced nay-nay) discovered the cat food and began to frequent the area putting them at risk of harmful encounters with humans and cats. The nēnē is listed as an endangered species by Hawai’i’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) but has been downlisted from endangered to threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
On the basis of the protected status of the nēnē, the DLNR has outlawed any feeding of the cats behind Queens’ Marketplace. ABay Kitties along with another nonprofit group, Hawaii Aloha Animal Oasis is working to trap and find homes for as many of the cats as possible.
Two women were cited in mid-April for setting out cat food after DLNR ordered the removal of feeding stations in the parking lot at Queen’s Marketplace. Their names were released in the May 24th story above. They are due in court on June 13th.
I’ll post an update when new information becomes available.
Tuesday morning at Anaeho’omalu Bay—it was quiet—a few walkers and the canoe club preparing to launch.
A-Bay Beach
Behind the beach several cats, the A-Bay kitties, were sunning themselves on the lava.
Dave and one of the A-Bay cats
Although I hadn’t visited in more than two years, a few looked familiar. But there was one in particular I was looking for—Red, the one-eyed cat I wrote about in 2013. Now known as Popeye, he’s a favorite of volunteers and visitors, one of the oldest cats in the colony. Dawn of A-Bay Kitties (the nonprofit that takes care of the cats) says he’s about thirteen or fourteen and has mellowed in the last year or so.
I found him snoozing on a lava rock. And sure enough, he let me take his picture and scratch his ears.
Red aka Popeye 3/6/18
Two days later, back on the Mainland I received a text from Dawn. Red had been found dead by a visitor. It was unexpected, but it appeared he died peacefully in his sleep, no sign of any injuries. He was laid to rest nearby.
I’ll miss Red. He represents all that is good in us. From Charlotte and Dawn who captured the feisty tabby and took him to the vet when he was sick or injured to the many volunteers who made sure he always had food and water to the visitors from around the world who stopped by to check on Popeye and leave donations for the kibble fund. Red had a good, long life and was well-loved.
I’m always on the lookout for wildlife stories and one good source is the “State-by-State” section of the USA Today, which I see a couple of times a month when I’m traveling. The micro-stories cover all topics, but it’s a rare day that I don’t find at least one good animal story.
Here are the best ones I found last week, ranging from Hawaii to New Hampshire.
Hilo, Hawaii: A dozen birds native to Hawaii will be released in November to end over a decade of extinction in the wild for the species. The corvid is part of the crow family and will be reintroduced at a natural area reserve aviary, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported. 8/30/16
The ‘alala or Hawaiian crow is threatened by a long list of things including habitat loss, feral animals, and overgrazing cattle according to my Audubon guide. After the initial release, more will be scheduled in the coming years. It’s a collaborative effort between the state, US Fish and Wildlife, and the San Diego Zoo. Teaching the chicks to hide from predators in the forest is one of the methods they are employing to increase the crows’ odds of survival in the wild. Here’s hoping the reintroduction is successful!
Photo by Paula Nixon
Prineville, Oregon: Residents are using streamers, balloons, pinwheels and CDs hanging from trees to scare off the city’s abundant deer, officials said. 8/31/16
Augusta, Maine: The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife approved an increase in “any deer” hunting permits. There will be more than 45,000 permits issued this year. 8/31/16
Different responses to the same problem—too many deer. In Prineville citizens are not in agreement about the deer population that hangs out in their town. Some like the hooved visitors; others are decorating their yards in an effort to scare them away. The city council opted not to fine those who feed them, but do strongly advise against it.
In Maine more hunting permits will be issued this fall after last year’s mild winter led to more deer surviving. Hunters can shoot “any deer”— males or females.
Goffstown, New Hampshire: A man said he spotted a hungry black bear trying to run off with his bird feeder outside his home, WMUR-TV reported. The animal dropped the feeder but later snacked on some seeds in Jason Alexander’s driveway. 8/31/16
Bear stories are my favorite and this one comes complete with a video. I hope that Mr. Alexander puts his bird seed away until the hungry bears return to the mountains for the winter.
Bob appeared on my lanai shortly after I arrived on the Big Island. I would have recognized him right away even if his picture didn’t show up every hour or so in my screen-saver photo rotation.
Photo Credit: P. Nixon
He looked just the same as he did four years ago–short-legged and stocky, white chest and paws with gray tabby markings, dark-rimmed green eyes, and a tipped left ear indicating he had been neutered.
Back then he traveled with a buddy, a large gray-and-black striped male. Very shy, the neutered tabby would hang back a few feet while Bob stood at the screen door cajoling, wheedling, demanding. Once I put out food they would both eat. Bob was generous about sharing.
This time Bob came and went alone, stopping at my back door every few hours. I figured he was making the rounds to other cat-friendly lanais, but hoped he also had access to a regularly maintained feeding station. I fed him small portions of canned Little Friskies and a few cat treats. One morning he napped on the doormat while I sat outside drinking coffee and writing. He was friendly, but cautious, moving away if I came too close. He looked healthy, but had a cut on a front leg that seemed to be healing.
Two days before I was scheduled to leave, Bob showed up with not one, not two, but three friends. At first I was dismayed, not sure I had enough time to get in touch with one of my contacts to borrow traps, bait and capture the felines, and then arrange transport to and from a clinic for spay/neuter. I looked more closely. Every one of the cats had a tipped ear. Someone had already done the work.
All four took up residence on and around the lanai, napping on the chairs, alert to my every move. A few hours before my flight back to the Mainland I opened the last can of chicken cat food and emptied the bag of dairy-flavored treats. I wondered how long it would take them to figure out I wasn’t coming back.
Before each trip to Hawaii, I reassess how I feel about feral cats in a place with so many endangered birds. So far, I haven’t come up with any better ideas than those I wrote about in a 2011 essay. Between visits I stay in touch with AdvoCATS Hawaii. Over the last 15 years they have spayed/neutered almost 16,000 cats on the island. They were probably responsible for fixing those that showed up on my lanai based on the emails we traded after I returned home.
It crosses my mind, just before I hit the publish button that maybe I shouldn’t share this post. It seems a contradiction to be writing about efforts to save endangered Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico and, at the same time, about feral cats that threaten endangered birds in Hawaii. But that’s the world I live in, really the world we all live in. Everything we do, whether consciously or not, impacts nature, the physical universe. That’s why I write this blog, not only as a way to recognize and appreciate that universe, but also as a way to puzzle out my place in it.
In the other gardens And all up the vale, From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over And all the summer flowers, The red fire blazes The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all! Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall!
Fall arrived Tuesday, the day I was making my way home from a trip to California and Hawaii. When I left New Mexico, ten days earlier, morning glories still ranged up and down the coyote fence and hummingbirds flitted around the sugar-water filled feeder.
Over three thousand miles away on the Big Island’s west coast the air was heavy and still on one of the last days of summer. The palm trees were quiet, not a whisper of a trade wind. Even the Pacific seemed subdued. At the beach a long, pale pod from a kiawe tree fell at my feet.
Pecking in the grass, a kolea hunted for insects. Hawaiian school children keep an eye out for the arrival of the long-legged golden plovers, winter visitors from the Arctic–a sure sign of autumn in a place where signs of the changing seasons can seem subtle to visitors from the north.
Back in Santa Fe I know what to look for. It’s still warm, almost hot, but the rabbitbrush has bloomed yellow and a canyon towhee scratches in the dirt looking for seeds. High up in the crown of a dark-green cottonwood I spot a patch of gold. And, in the evening air I catch a whiff of piñon smoke wafting from an adobe chimney.
The Grand Tetons by Ansel Adams Courtesy of the National Archives
Craggy, wild, majestic. Looking at an Ansel Adams photograph makes me want to unearth my hiking boots from the back of the spare-room closet and climb the nearest mountain.
I had no idea what to expect from his Hawaiian photos–taken in the 40s and 50s. Of course, there were a few of volcanoes and crashing waves, but this was the one that I went back to look at more closely, to contemplate. The figure of a man carved into a slab of rough lava rock, the indentation drifted full of kiawe leaves–entitled Petroglyph, outlined in kiawe leaves–represented to Adams the synthesis of the ancient and the new that he found in Hawaii.
The kiawe tree (Prosopis pallida), according to the U.S. Forest Service’s website, was introduced in 1828 by Father Bachelot, the first Catholic priest in Hawaii. He started the tree from a seed carried with him from Paris and planted it near a church in Honolulu. Within twelve years the offspring of his sprout had become the most common shade tree in the city and were quickly spreading to the other islands. Today kiawe trees cover thousands of acres across Hawaii. All are descended from the priest’s original plant.
Kiawe tree at A-Bay Beach By: P. Nixon
Adams took his photo near Kawaihae on the west coast of the island of Hawaii less than 15 miles north of the Anaeho’omalu Beach where, today, this kiawe tree shelters a colony of cats.
The Big Island was in a dark and sulky mood when Dave and I visited Hawaii in early March. Waves pounded the Kohala Coast and a mix of storm clouds and vog from Kilauea obscured the sun. The warnings were dire. Sneaker waves and riptides made it dangerous to get close to the water.
Photo Credit: P. Nixon
It didn’t matter much; we had work to do, but on our last day the sky cleared and we walked the shoreline access to Anaeho’omalu Bay. We hurried past the lava ponds eager to reach the rocky beach, hoping to see a turtle or two, but there were none to be found.
No one knows why for sure, but Hawaiian green turtles come on shore (unlike many other sea turtles) to bask in the sun. It may be as simple as the pleasure of a warm nap without the threat of being eaten by a tiger shark.
A well-situated piece of driftwood convinced us to stop hunting for turtles and sit down. Mesmerized by the sunlight on the water it took a moment to realize I was looking at one of the two-hundred pound reptiles. Slow and awkward on land, the turtle or honu, as it is called in Hawaiian, was graceful in the water. bobbing in the waves, occasionally extending its leathery neck above the surface to take a breath of air.
I expected it to disappear quickly, to swim away, but the big turtles don’t move fast, only about a mile per hour. Once they find a good place to eat the sea grass and algae that make up the bulk of their diet, they tend to stay put.
Kiawe trees (Prosopis pallida) like this one on A-Bay Beach are a species of mesquite native to Ecuador and Peru. Introduced to Hawaii in the 1800s they thrive on the hot and dry, leeward (western and southern) coasts of the islands. I hadn’t been able to identify a similar tree behind the beach until Charlotte filled me in on its name with this note, “very common here in Hawaii with sharp thorns that stick thru your slipper.”
This one is huge; its sprawling and twisted limbs provide shelter and a multitude of perches for the cats.
By P. Nixon
A few miles up the road bees pollinate a forest of kiawe trees and produce a white honey that is said to have a “delicate tropical flavor“. Dave purchased a jar to bring home not knowing it was related to the beach trees. We were looking forward to trying it on our morning toast along with a cup of Kona coffee, but the sweet paste didn’t pass the scrutiny of airport security and with no time to go back out to the counter to check it, it was confiscated. Next time . . .
