AR-News: (US) HI: feral cats hanged on big island

[cathy goeggel]

        Cats apparently hung
        in protest
        Three dead felines are strung up
        for show at a Big Island harbor

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        By Rod Thompson
        rhompson at starbulletin.com
        HONOKOHAU, Hawaii » Someone killed three feral cats at the state's
Honokohau Small Boat Harbor north of Kailua-Kona and displayed the bodies,
apparently as a protest against people feeding the animals.

        Thalia Naidu, a member of the Advocats group that aids the felines,
took a picture this month of three cats hung by their necks on strings. She
said she believes the cats were already dead from poison when hung.

        "There's no other way they could catch a feral cat," she said.

        The feline bodies were hung in front of an old paper sign warning
against feeding cats and a hand-scrawled message, "Do not feed the cats,
DLNR."

        Department of Land and Natural Resources officer Charles Nahale said
the paper warning signs were put up by the agency's Boating Division about a
year ago, but the department has not killed cats.

        "It's something we don't want to see, especially on public property
when we do have a lot of children who come through here."

        Although her group feeds the cats, the real problem is failure of
people to spay, neuter, and care for their pets properly, Naidu said.

        "If feeders stop feeding (feral cats), the problem will not go
away," she said. Feral cats can survive on insects, geckos and mice, she
said.

        Frannie Kinslow of the Hawaii Island Humane Society said a society
officer took tissue samples to determine if the cats were poisoned. The
results are not available yet.

        She said she doesn't believe boat owners are involved. Cats from a
separate population scavenge scraps from fishing boats, she said.

        The dead cats belonged to a population some distance from the boats.
The populations don't mix because cats are territorial, she said.

        Killing the cats could lead to charge of cruelty to animals, a
misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and $1,000 fine, she said.
There are no suspects.