Number of incoming
pets rising

The increase comes in the
two years since the state eased
rules for pet quarantine

Pet owners and breeders brought 7,653 cats and dogs into Hawaii in the past year, a 62 percent increase since the state eased the rabies quarantine regulations two years ago.

Owners have embraced the five-day-or-less quarantine program by complying with rules requiring advance vaccinations and blood tests for their animals. Some 86 percent of dogs and cats entering the state in the past year qualified for release at Honolulu Airport on arrival, according to a state Department of Agriculture new release.

The Board of Agriculture yesterday approved amendments that refine the rules, including a measure allowing greater flexibility for law enforcement agencies to use quarantined working dogs. The rule changes will go to Gov. Linda Lingle for approval after a review by the state attorney general.

"The whole goal of the program is to reduce the burden on pets and their owners while maintaining our high vigilance against the introduction of rabies," said Sandra Lee Kunimoto, board chairwoman.

Since 1912, the government maintained Hawaii's rabies-free status with a required 120-day confinement of incoming pets. Revised rules adopted in 1997 allowed a 30-day confinement if advance vaccination and testing requirements were met. Lingle approved the five-day-or-less plan, which went into effect in July 2003.

There were 4,771 dogs and cats imported in the fiscal year ending June 2003. Of those, 69 percent qualified for the 30-day stay in the state quarantine facility and 1,479 without documentation of rabies shots had to be held for 120 days.

In the year ending in June 2005, some 612 animals spent the full four months in quarantine, 220 were held 30 days and 225 were held for up to five days.

An animal may bypass quarantine if it has received: