Hawaii Island Humane Society: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The grant money was used to pay for vaccines, medicine, pet food, sulfur-dioxide filters, equipment for field officers, and helicopter rental.
This grant allowed us to vaccinate and treat pets who were at the pet-friendly evacuation shelter. Many pets were not up-to-date on their vaccines or were ill. We also used the funds to purchase pet food that we could leave for animals we were trying to rescue and to leave in traps. Almost every day, our staff and volunteers are going into the lava-flow zone to trap and rescue all types of animals. Many are needing to be airlifted by helicopter from the "lava-locked" areas. Our staff and volunteers were also able to receive needed supplies such as SO2 (sulfur dioxide) filters, walkie talkies, kennels and cell phones.
How many pets did this grant help?
367 and counting
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
A dog named Bear (first photo) and his owner were separated moments before they were going to be rescued via helicopter. After numerous flyovers and subsequent searches, Bear could not be found. After several weeks, some volunteers hiked into the lava-flow zone and found him! He was much leaner, but in good spirits and happy to have some company after so many weeks. Fortunately, the rescuers were able to get a call through to us and we were able to pick him up (second photo).
We had been in this area a few days prior to do an assessment and had spotted some cats and a duck. Over the weekend, we received requests for chickens and ducks, so we brought in quite a load of traps, carriers, and food. Approximately three miles of the highway was trapped between two lava fields and both ends had fairly high sulfur-dioxide readings, so we try to get in and out of those areas quickly.
At the end of the day, Bear was joined by three chickens (third photo), three ducks, one adult domestic cat and a weeks-old kitten.
