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