A bill aimed at reducing the overpopulation of cats in Hawaii continues to progress through the state Legislature.

House Bill 1736 establishes a special spay- neuter fund, but also requires owners of all pet cats ages five months or older to get their felines sterilized and prohibits intact cats from being imported into Hawaii, with some exceptions.

The House Finance Committee passed the bill on Wednesday, allowing it to advance to a floor vote.

While the latest version of the bill has widespread support from the Hawaiian Humane Society and numerous conservation groups, it has met with objection from members of the Cat Fanciers of Hawaii and Pacific Pet Alliance.

The question of how to tackle Hawaii’s free-roaming cat overpopulation has been a highly controversial topic for years, with conservationists calling it a crisis, while avowed cat lovers say the felines are innocent victims of human irresponsibility deserving to be managed humanely.

Members of Cat Fanciers, meanwhile, maintain that they are just a small group of breed preservationists passionate about preserving lines of certain pedigreed cats, and that the bill is misdirected toward people with intact cats when the intention is to improve access to spay-neuter programs.

The original bill would have exempted cat breeders from sterilization requirements so long as owners provided proof that the cat was registered with a national or international breed registry and had competed in at least one show or competition.

After pushback from the Cat Fanciers, a later version struck out the section requiring proof the cat had competed in a show, as they testified not all breeding cats necessarily participate in shows.

The latest version requires owners of intact cats to submit an “intact cat declaration,” along with a $100 fee to the applicable county animal control authority or contractor, in order to get an exemption from the requirement. On Oahu, that authority would be the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Additionally, it specifies that monies from the special fund are to be used for animals, including free-roaming cats, but only if they are not re-released into the environment.

A sterilized cat could go to a shelter, foster, be adopted out or placed in a cat sanctuary, but is not to be released back into the environment, which is common practice for the trap-neuter-release-management strategy currently in use by many organizations.

For and against

In more than 180 pages of testimony, conservation groups and animal welfare organizations joined forces to support the measure, while cat breeders and cat owners objected.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources’s Patrick Chee said the agency has worked closely with animal welfare organizations to come up with a balanced bill, and that this was it.

“We want more affordable spay-and-neuter in order to reduce the overpopulation of cats on the landscape which would definitely benefit a lot of our conservation interests,” he said. “In the last round of amendments, we support the declaration that has been added on as a means to track the intact cats that are coming into the state.”

The American Bird Conservancy, along with the Hawaii Audobon Society and Kauai Albatross Network all support the measure.

ABC said cats have contributed to the extinction of two native birds– the Lanai hookbill and Hawaiian rail, or mono. Additionally, cat feces carry the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, which can spread into the environment, posing a public health risk.

The Hawaiian Humane Society is also backing the bill as a joint effort between animal welfare and conservation groups to reduce the number of cats living outdoors.

Cat Fanciers of Hawaii members, however, opposed a bill they feel unfairly targets cat breeders.

Aisha Aoki, vice president of the group, said it a local nonprofit made up of a small group of breed preservationists “passionate about preserving the healthy lines of breed specific cats.” None of their cats are allowed to free roam, she said, which would be unwise for a pedigreed cat.

“Realistically, responsible breeders of pedigreed cats are NOT contributors to the state’s feral over-population,” she testified. “While we support a spay/neuter fund and assistance to the public to be able to fix their pets, responsible breeders should not be penalized for problems that they did not contribute to.”

She said the group supports a spay-neuter special fund, but not the sterilization requirement for all cats five months or older or the declaration requirement for intact cats.

“Tracking every single unfixed cat is not important nor feasible,” she wrote. “Getting the funding to the veterinarians and programs is the key.”

But Stephanie Kendrick, HHS’s vice president of community engagement, said the bill demands very little of cat fanciers who want to bring cats in to breed in Hawaii.

“It just says that you need to register, you need to declare that you have an intact cat, pay a small, one-time fee so that the paperwork is on record, and we know who has these intact animals,” she said. “It does not prevent them from keeping the breeds that they love.”

Animal Rights Hawaii, which supported an earlier version of the bill, withdrew its support for the latest version, saying it had “morphed significantly” and is now “irreparably flawed.”

Cat overpopulation

There are no official, scientific estimates of how many free-roaming or feral cats there are in Hawaii, though groups such as the Kauai Albatross Network said the population has “spun way out of control, with hundreds of thousands of abandoned cats living in every conceivable area.”

DLNR, in written testimony, said cats, considered invasive species that prey on native birds, have been reported in every habitat in Hawaii — from sea level to an elevation level of 11,000 feet at Mauna Kea, posing an ecological threat.

Free-roaming cat colonies appear to exist on nearly all major isles, and in pockets of community parks, neighborhoods, and forest trailheads.

Dedicated cat lovers routinely feed many of these cat colonies, with some working to trap, neuter and return them to where they were found as a way to reduce the cat population.

But the current bill does not embrace that strategy, stipulating that animals fixed by the special fund not be released — this, in particular, is drawing opposition.

The Kauai Community Cat Project, which opposes the bill, said it fixes about 2,000 cats per year using private donations.

Some of these cats are adopted out in Hawaii or the U.S. mainland, while others are placed in “catios” and private, fenced sanctuaries, the group said.

“But there is inadequate funding to place all the cats and many are returned to their outside managed colonies,” said the group’s secretary/treasurer Susan Rowe, in written testimony.

Kendrick, from the Hawaiian Humane Society, said that while this special fund will not be able to go toward trap-neuter-return- manage efforts, it still would be a boost for cat population reduction efforts.

“For the folks who are concerned that this bill in any way impedes ongoing trap-neuter-return efforts, it does not,” she testified. “It simply says that these additional new funds cannot be used for that purpose. Hawaiian Humane supports TNRM. We will continue to find other funding sources to support those efforts.”

She was responding, in part, to social media posts alleging that HB 1736 would prohibit trap-neuter-returns, forcing cats into sanctuaries that do not exist on a statewide scale, leaving no humane alternative.

An exception also can be made for cats not suitable to be sterilized due to health or age, if certified in writing by a veterinarian.

Fines for not complying with sterilization or declaration requirements would range from $500 to $1,000 per violation per cat.

The costs of spay-neuter services for cats vary, depending on if it is from a nonprofit group or private veterinarian.

Honolulu’s Feline Fix program waives sterilization fees for free-roaming cats with funds from the city.

The Oahu SPCA offers low-cost spay/neuter services for pet cats for $115 to $140. The Hawaiian Humane offers the services for just $100, but appointments fill up months in advance.

Private veterinarians likely will charge as much as $200 to $250 to neuter or spay a cat on Oahu, according to the nonprofit Aloha Animal Alliance.

CAT BILL

>> House Bill 1736, in its latest form, establishes a spay-and-neuter special fund from tax refund designations or other sources; requires cats over 5 months to be sterilized unless covered by an “intact cat declaration” and $100 fee; prohibits import of intact cats into Hawaii, with certain exceptions.

>> Introduced by State Rep. Luke Evslin (D, Wailua-Lihue)

>> Supported by the Hawaiian Humane Society, American Bird Conservancy, Kauai Albatross Network, various conservation groups; opposed by Pacific Pet Alliance, Cat Fanciers of Hawaii, Animal Rights Hawaii, various individuals.

>> Status: Crossed over, passed first Senate reading, referred to committee.