(The Maui News): For the first time in years, the Maui Humane Society said on Tuesday that it has a list of at-risk animals for euthanasia due to extreme overcrowding at the Puunene shelter.
The sole open-admission animal shelter in the county said it is “urgently pleading for action in addressing extreme overcrowding.”
MHS said the crisis is not unique to Maui and it is widespread throughout the country.
To help, MHS said people can adopt or foster a pet, volunteer at the shelter, make a donation and spread the word about responsible pet ownership.
People can also help prevent animals from coming to the shelter by making sure your animal wears identification and is micro chipped. If people find a lost or found an animal, see the shelter’s lost/found page to take the right steps. Before making an appointment to surrender, try to re-home the animal.
Currently the shelter has more than 130 dogs in care and only 40 kennels.
Every day MHS receives an average of four to five stray animals in need of care and shelter.
While staff and advocates work tirelessly to find homes for the animals, they are faced with the reality that the rate of dog adoptions is insufficient to keep pace with the growing number of dogs at the shelter, a news release said.
There is a wait list to surrender animals because 40 percent of all surrenders at MHS are due to lack of pet-friendly housing. The lack of pet friendly housing, coupled with increased restrictions on flights for animals to already overpopulated shelters on the mainland, limits the plausible impact of the life-saving Wings of Aloha program, MHS said.
For more information and to adopt an animal, see https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/pet-adoption/pets-for-adoption.
MHS is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located off of Maui Veterans Highway.
