Speaking of the “Humane” Society

[Lin W]

I am NOT a fan of the Keaau branch of the Hawai’i Island Humane Society, but, stupidly, I keep trying. My neighbor is a young single woman who keeps two huge nasty rottweilers, male and female, both intact. She has a chain link enclosure on the far side of her house plus a fenced back yard. The problem is that she spends very little time at home. I don’t know if she’s working somewhere too far for a daily commute or staying with her girlfriend or…? She no longer speaks to me. On “normal” days she is there briefly most nights, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes a few hours. She’s often gone all weekend. Her parents own the house but live on the mainland so not much they can do long distance. She hasn’t been around since a week ago yesterday and her dogs, which normally howl off and on through the day and night, howled less and less and then not at all. While I do hate those dogs, I realize that she is the problem, and they’re just doing what neglected dogs do. They have charged me before and I’m very cautious not to go into my back yard when I know they are loose in theirs so I didn’t want to attempt to check on them myself. Wednesday I called the Humane Society and asked them to check on the dogs just to make sure they had what they needed to keep going unattended. They said they’d come that day. They didn’t. Guess they didn’t work yesterday, but they did come today around noon. Truck drove into her driveway, honked, waited about 30 seconds, honked again, then backed out and left. Then my phone rang and it was the HS officer who asked me if I had called. I said yes, and I that I had just watched him honk and leave without ever getting out of the truck. He asked what the problem was with the dogs and I said I was just concerned for their welfare. He said he could see the dogs come to the fence on the other side of the house and they looked fine. I asked if he could tell if they had food, water, shelter from the truck. He said they were okay, then said he could see cats in my yard, asked how many cats I have, asked if I was a hoarder. He said he wanted to make sure I wasn’t a hoarder and increasing the feral cat population. The way he said it I felt threatened - do not question his lack of action or he would make trouble for the cats (and me). I said my cats are spayed and neutered, always, as are my two dogs. Nevertheless, I didn’t push him to come back and do his job; I know when I’m outflanked. So, I still don’t know of the rotts are okay, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never ask the HS for help again. What would you do?


use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without