LIHU‘E — Waewae Road resident Anne Janelle said 14 cats and four dogs are missing in her neighborhood — including her beloved male cat — and someone shot to death with a pellet gun a neighbor’s cat. Someone also has
LIHU‘E — Waewae Road resident Anne Janelle said 14 cats and four dogs are missing in her neighborhood — including her beloved male cat — and someone shot to death with a pellet gun a neighbor’s cat.
Someone also has been tearing down printed posters, notices of the disappearances Janelle of Kalaheo had been placing in the neighborhood until her own cat disappeared.
“There’s somebody out there who hates cats. I don’t know if they’re trapping them,” she said. “We’re all upset about our animals.
“We’re all just flabbergasted. We don’t know what to do,” she said, adding that her cat used to always come home.
“We’re frustrated, real frustrated,” said Janelle, adding that she’s hoping one person may have seen one thing that could lead to an arrest or a lead.
“I don’t know what to do. We’re all just distressed,” she said. “We’re distressed. We just want answers, and we’re just praying that someone knows something.”
The Kaua‘i Humane Society has an active investigation going on in the neighborhood, including distributing flyers door to door on proper procedures (basically contacting KHS immediately at 632-0610) for anyone missing a pet, seeing someone coming onto their property and taking a pet or witnessing someone shoot, poison or maliciously harm a pet.
“We are offering a $1,000 reward for any information which leads to the arrest and conviction of a person maliciously harming pets in your neighborhood,” the flyer states.
Deliberately harming someone else’s pet is now a class C felony punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“You can’t go shooting cats,” said Dr. Rebecca “Becky” Rhoades, a veterinarian and KHS executive director.
“We’re on it, and we’ll continue to be on it until it stops,” said Rhoades.
So far, there has been no evidence of foul play in the disappearance of the animals, and no evidence as to who shot the cat, she said.
Some neighborhood pets reported as missing have ended up at the KHS shelter and have been returned to owners in the neighborhood, said Rhoades, adding that she does not think animals have been physically taken out of yards of owners.
People having problems with “nuisance cats” that are not their pets on their land can pick up humane traps at the KHS headquarters on Kaumuali‘i Highway near Puhi, she said.
Rhoades recommends cats be kept indoors.
And she recommends neighbors keep an eye out for anything or anyone that looks suspicious. “Awareness might help with evidence, leads.”
• Paul C. Curtis, assistant editor and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
