STAR-BULLETIN / 1996
This dog howled to be released from the state quarantine center in 1996.
Board OKs 5-day Dog and cat owners moving to Hawaii next year may be able to put their pets in quarantine for as few as five days under a proposed change in state quarantine rules.
pet quarantine
The proposal will now go for
public hearings later this yearBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comThe state Board of Agriculture approved the measure Thursday at its monthly meeting, clearing the way for public hearings later this year.
To qualify for the short quarantine stay here, the animals would have to be vaccinated for rabies at least 120 days before leaving the mainland and be identified with a microchip imbedded under their skin.
Since 1997, incoming pets could have their Hawaii quarantine stay shortened to 30 days if they had been vaccinated for rabies 90 days before leaving the mainland, state veterinarian Jim Foppoli said.
Animals that do not receive pre-arrival vaccinations per state rules have to stay in quarantine for 120 days after arrival in Hawaii.
The new proposal should not increase the risk of rabies coming to Hawaii, Foppoli said.
He said the last recorded case of rabies in Hawaii was in 1967, and the only one before that was on a ship in the 1940s. By comparison, he said, over the past five or six years, the mainland averaged about 400 rabies cases a year in dogs or cats.
Foppoli said he expected a large turnout of support for the new proposal, as well as opposition.
The Foppoli proposal was deferred from an Agriculture Board meeting in July. At that meeting, the board rejected the Community Quarantine Reform Coalition's proposal to allow quarantine exemption to cats and dogs traveling to and from Hawaii upon successful completion of two vaccinations, a blood test and microchip identification.
