| Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation Celebrates First Anniversary This month the Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation (HARF) celebrates its first anniversary in the business of Maui animal welfare. Standard sheltering methods are archaic and do little to solve animal issues. It is proven that euthanizing animals as a way of addressing pet overpopulation doesn't work. Animal welfare models are changing and we intend to be the change in Hawaii. Right now, securing land is the priority. In the meantime, we work with a network of foster families to house and care for our dogs. Right now, we have approximately 67 dogs and hold weekend adoption events on Maui and Oahu. MT: Where is the dog shelter? How many dogs can the shelter house at a time? HALL: We currently don't have a shelter location. room. The number of dogs we can have at any one time depends on the number of foster families we have, i. MT: Do you know how many dogs are euthanized on Maui annually? HALL: Per the County Data Book, MHS euthanized over 800 dogs last fiscal year-these are their numbers. MT: Is there anything else you can mention about HARF? HALL: Check out our Facebook page! I think it will give you a real feel for our group and what we do. MT: Tell me more about the day-to-day running of HARF. HALL: We differ from the Maui SPCA in that their primary mission is spay/neuter. We are always looking for additional fosters. We take as many as possible from the local shelter (they provide us a list each week) and receive animals directly from the community. HARF wants to begin building a whole new no-kill, full-service animal shelter facility and is in the activity of acquiring land. Dawn Hall, HARF's vice president and cofounder, found a moment to answer a few questions about how the foundation operates: MAUITIME: Is this the anniversary of creating your shelter? DAWN HALL: This is the anniversary of organizing the foundation. MT: How do you plan to build a large full service shelter? HALL: The eventual shelter build will be planned in stages with the largest priorities being built first. Since our facility will include an adoption center, spay/neuter surgery center, education center, dog kennels, an area for big breed animals and a community dog park it is estimated that the build will run in between $3-4 million. MT: How many foster families do you have for the dogs? HALL: It varies from 10-20 families at a time. The more help we have, the more dogs we can help. That helped to reduce the euthanasia rate on Maui by approximately forty percent. Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation Celebrates First Anniversary |
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation Celebrates First Anniversary
