Hawaiian Humane Society Reduces Services Due to City Budget Constraints

The Hawaiian Humane Society has announced that they will be forced to reduce some of their services due to the fact that the City of Honolulu would not be able to meet their budget increase requirements.  According to Jesse Broder Van Dyke, the spokesman for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, the Humane Society required a budget increase of $800,000.  However, the Caldwell administration is blaming the Honolulu City Council for a $26 million shortfall and stated that while they would like to fund the Humane Society and other important services, cuts have to be made.  The Honolulu City Council in response blames the Caldwell administration and argued that they had passed a balanced budget of $1.8 billion in June 2013 and it is Caldwell's fault in services are cut.

Under their new budget constraints, the Hawaiian Humane Society will no longer pick up stray animals, deal with barking dog complaints, deal with cat complaints, provide other animal-related field services, or provide information on investigations to law enforcement, except for animal cruelty cases.  The Society will continue to capture and hold aggressive loose dogs, and handle emergencies in which an animal's life or public safety is threatened.  However, they will only do these activities during normal business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.  The Humane Society will shelter animals at their site and continue to accept them on-site 24 hours a day.

The public is urged to bring any stray animals that they find to the Hawaiian Humane Society's site on Waialae Avenue.  For other animal related complaints, the public is asked to call the Honolulu Police Department.  For more information, go to the Humane Society’s website at www.hawaiianhumane.org

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 8-9-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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