PUHI — Staff member Salem Cano arrived at the Kaua‘i Humane Society shelter Sunday morning to discover 20 dogs running loose in the back parking lot.
Inside the shelter, Cano found 55 more dogs loose.
A window had been broken, a door had been left ajar, and all of the kennels were open.
“Of course, there’s always a possibility that something like this could happen, but it’s never been something that I would think could actually happen,” Cano said. “I’m just glad it’s not worse than what it could have been, and I’m so grateful for my coworkers who immediately came to my aid.”
Society employees immediately got to work corralling the loose dogs.
“The staff is amazing,” said KHS Executive Director Nicole Crane. “They worked so quickly. We had dogs that were hiding in kennels that weren’t their kennels, so we were moving those dogs into their proper kennels while trying to bribe or leash the other ones.”
Crane said that the loose dogs had torn into bags of food, leaving the building and parking lot a “disaster.”
All were accounted for but two, who were struck and killed by vehicles on Kaumuali‘i Highway fronting the shelter. A few dogs sustained minor injuries, including Kalohi, a 16-year-old miniature pinscher who was left with several puncture wounds after the incident.
The motive and identity of the intruder or intruders remain unclear. The Kaua‘i Police Department confirmed Tuesday that there had not yet been any arrests made in the case.
“They didn’t steal anything,” said Crane. “They just came to endanger our animals. I don’t know if they were looking for something and couldn’t find it and were frustrated and decided to do this, or if this was ultimately the motive.”
Several KHS board members have offered up a reward of $20,000 for information resulting in the conviction of the perpetrator or perpetrators.
After shutting down Sunday, the shelter has returned to full operation.
“Everyone’s on the mend,” said Crane. “Everyone’s decompressing and settling down.”
This event comes as KHS has dealt with an increased animal population, decreased adoptions, staffing shortages, COVID, and the fluctuations of tourism due to the pandemic, causing the shelter to close one day a week.
KHS is asking for donations in order to purchase an upgraded security system at bit.ly/KHSdonation.
“We have to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Crane.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
