KAUAI HUMANE SOCIETY

Our average annual intake is over 2,000 animals. We work tirelessly to save the lives of our shelter animals through adoptions and transfers while supporting and educating pet owners in our community about responsible pet ownership, including the importance of spay and neuter, vaccines, responsible pet ownership, and more.

KHS is working towards becoming a pet resource-centric facility as opposed to a "holding center" in line with best practices of animals making this transition nation-wide.

This means we are working towards offering more services to the community that helps them to keep their pets in their home. We are doing this by offering more affordable and free spay/neuters, vaccines, and microchip clinics, as well as free pet resources such as food and supplies for those in need. We've offered several free rotating clinics within the community and on site.

The Kauai Humane Society works hard to keep animals with their owners when life circumstances threaten to separate them, as bringing animals into the shelter should always be a last resort. KHS runs a variety of programs to serve both two and four-legged island residents, including low-cost spay and neuter, a limited Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) for low-income residents, monthly low-cost vaccination and microchip clinics, Emergency Boarding for pets, Cremation Services, and the Gomez Galley Pet Food Bank. Prior to COVID-19 we also set up partner relationships with many mainland shelters where we could transfer animals to another shelter to increase the chances of adoption as our adopter pool is limited here on the island. These programs were on hold due to the pandemic, but are slowly ramping up again.

This year KHS accomplished it's first in-house transfer of 201 animals to individual adopters and rescue partners in Seattle, WA. We have begun monthly transfers to rescue partners on the mainland and have begun working with airline companies to offer affordable off-island adoptions on the West Coast.

We have plans to create a community clinic beginning in 2022 which would be an entire separate building on the property entirely dedicated to offering low-cost veterinary services to the public.

We've also received funding this year to be able to allow victims of domestic violence to shelter their pets and have a safe, separate place to visit with their pets while seeking help.

We work tirelessly to save the lives of our shelter animals through adoptions and transfers while supporting and educating pet owners in our community about responsible pet ownership, including the importance of spay and neuter. We also support pet owners in our community when life circumstances threaten to separate pets from people, as surrendering animals into the shelter should always be a last resort. KHS runs a variety of programs to serve both two and four-legged island residents, including low-cost and deeply subsidized spay and neuter, monthly low-cost vaccination and microchip clinics, Critter Camp for kids, Hunter Education, Direct Release, Emergency Boarding for pets, Cremation Services, Pet Bereavement Support meetings, and more. KHS currently has 10 board members, 40 staff members (this includes full time, part-time, and seasonal), and 144 active volunteers. Many of our services depend on the generosity of individual donors, foundations, as well as the revenue-generating services we provide to the community. We have a contract with the County of Kaua`i for animal control services which accounts for approximately one-third of our annual budget. We generate the remainder through donations, grants, commercial sales, and services provided. With the COVID-19 travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine we lost two of our most vital sources of income for the majority of the pandemic– the “Direct Release Program” and the “Field Trip Program.” As the only rabies-free state, Hawaii has strict protocols for animals coming into the state, and KHSʻ Direct Release program ensures they are met.

KHS has adapted to the challenges of the pandemic. We held a virtual gala this year that brought in $200,000 in funds, the most successful gala yet. The achievements of the last couple of years has reinvigorated donors who haven't donated in several years.

KHS's live release rates in 2020 were at 91.7%. In 2021, our average live release rates have been above 98% for most months out of the year, officially achieving a no-kill status in 2021.

We helped to pass legislation this year that requires all pets in the county of Kauai to have microchips instead of pet licenses.

KHS has offered more public spay and neuters, and low-cost vaccine and microchips clinics than ever before.

KHS also assisted Greater Good Charities with coming to the island to fix 1,700 cats. GGC will be returning in 2022 to continue their work here as well.

Next year, we are hoping to begin breaking ground on renovations to our facilities to improve the housing of the animals in the shelter, the veterinary suite, and the layout of the building, as well as adding onto the property the community clinic for the public and community cat housing in an effort to protect the fragile ecosystem of Kauai.