From Scott Haisley, senior emergency services director, HSUS
'' 'Welcome to paradise'
we heard the airline
attendant announce as our 13-hour flight finally
touched down on the island of Oahu. For most of the travelers on our packed
flight this would be a dream vacation of surf and sand, but our team had come to
the big island for a very different purpose. Just 15 hours before we had been
given the go-ahead to embark on the largest animal rescue in Oahu’s recent
history – saving more than 300 animals from a West Oahu hoarder.
As we filed out of the
plane the incredible image of translucent aqua water was still seared on the
back of my lids, but my mind had already begun to conjure up the images of
intense suffering I knew we would be facing during our rescue. My first order of
business was to gather the assessment team, animal handlers and sheltering
specialist that we had flown in and discuss the plan of action. Specifically the
difficult task of building an emergency shelter for several hundred animals from
scratch on an island with few necessary resources.
Luckily I sent a stellar assessment
team down the day before to secure materials necessary to build the shelter.
Usually on the main land our Animal Rescue team can simply have all of our
sheltering supplies delivered to the site easily and quickly. That was not the
case in Honolulu. Our logistics coordinator for the mission called Home Depot
and incredibly had every piece of kenneling equipment and fencing on the island
transported to our emergency shelter within hours. We cleaned out the inventory
of every pet store on the island and all three Home Depots and just barely had
enough to build our shelter. In a matter of less than two days our shelter went
from barren warehouse to the facility we would need to house the rescued
animals.
Early Sunday morning our team pulled
together and entered the property to begin a long day of animal rescue. We were
able to come to the aid of these animals after the property owner’s wife passed
away and he surrendered the over 100 dogs, approximately 100 cats and 200 ducks,
chicken and geese on the property to the Oahu SPCA. The deceased owner had been
a suspected animal hoarder for more than 15 years – taking in hundreds of
animals and attempting to care for them with no assistance. Like all hoarding
situations these animals were given the bare minimum
of care while the owner was convinced she was saving them from a worse fate. The
outcome was a life of misery and neglect for every living creature on the
site.
The three-and-a-half
acre property was strewn with mounds of garbage and dilapidated structures. The
filthy conditions were made even more evident by the gorgeous, lush mountains
that rose up on either side of the property. Our team freed the dogs first. The
majority of the dogs were housed in dismal, cramped chain link and wooden
kennels with stained concrete floors. Many dogs were suffering from untreated
wounds, while the majority had skin or eye conditions and obvious parasite
infestation.
The cats and fowl were
in an equally dismal state. Ammonia levels in the cat houses were so high our
team had to wear protective breathing masks while removing the scrawny,
stressed-out felines. Luckily the fowl needed less daily care than the other
animals, and thus fared somewhat better. We still found some ducks and geese
with broken wings and the remains of several deceased fowl throughout the
property. While there were few critical cases on the scene it was obvious that
if these animals fell ill they were not receiving even basic medical care needed
to heal them. I hate to think of the untold numbers of animals who may have
perished there over the past 15 years from easily treatable
ailments.
There was one dog on
the property who seemed to understand her rescue more than any other animal we
removed that day. She was a shaggy brown Border collie mix who sat awaiting us
in the middle of a long row of dirty kennels. She was housed with several other
frantic dogs, but as I approached a look of knowing calm came over her little
face. When I entered her cell and lifted her off the feces-laden floor she
melted into my chest, and then made her way to my shoulder to hang on for dear
life. As I looked her over I noticed her horribly overgrown nails nearly curled
back into the flesh of her paws, yet she ignored any pain to shower me with
affection. I have no doubt in my mind that she knew her days of hopeless
suffering were over once and for all.
Once our team safely
and humanely removed all of the animals from the property it was time to rush to
the shelter to check on the progress of the rescued animals. HSUS staff and
volunteers, UAN volunteers and local citizens banded together at the facility to
see to the needs of these deprived animals. When I entered the shelter I made a
bee-line for my little brown dog’s clean, new crate.
I saw immediately that
her joy at being rescued had only grown. She wiggled up into my arms when I sat
down inside her crate. A shelter worker heard me call her sweetheart, and
suggested we call her Ku’ Uipo, which means sweetheart in Polynesian. Upon
hearing her new name Ku’ Uipo began to thump her tail frantically and whine with
pleasure. It was as if she had been called that in a past life, possibly one
where she was once someone’s family pet. There is no way of knowing little Ku’
Uipo’s past, or how she and the others ended up living a life of hell surrounded
by paradise. But I know that these animals will never again be forced to live in
cages and will now have a chance to find their own paradise. ''
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