Maui Hawaii is a true vacation paradise. It has blue skies, warm water, great places to eat and drink and people act like they haven't a care in the world. Underneath all this there is a tragic secret many don't know about.

Sadly hundreds of pets every year are treated as disposable commodities as they are abandoned and dumped in places such as already existing cat colonies where already over taxed volunteers are feeding them. One sanctuary even was telling their clients to do this rather than take them to the only shelter on the island which is a "kill" facility. For whatever misguided reasons pet owners are dumping by the droves. In kitten season it may be upwards of 50 cats a month. They wind up at hotels, by restaurants, parks and in managed feral colonies.

This puts a burden on county resources as well as rescuers and caretakers who now have to round them all up, get them sterilized, rehabilitate them and find homes for them or spend out of pocket funds to care for them in the colonies where they sit huddled by the curb in the rain waiting for food. Most of these abandoned cats don't make it. They starve on the streets cruelly or they are picked up by animal control and euthanized as they are considered unadoptable. Many of these cats need veterinary care that being one of the reasons people discard them like so much trash.

At this point while there are local laws against animal abandonment it must be proven who the owner is and that they intentionally abandoned the animal. This rarely is successful. Because people keep getting away with it they keep dumping. Colony managers who are already over burdened with the cost of food, transportation and vet care for their cats now bear the financial brunt of this dumping behavior of the local community.

We are a group of responsible colony caretakers who are petitioning the county to release $25,000 in funds to help care for these animals that are now being cared for out of volunteers pockets. We also ask to partner with the shelter to help us to help these cast off creatures. We are asking that some of this funding go to Maui Humane Society veterinary department so volunteers can use this albeit limited veterinary facility to bring these sick or injured cats under their care to MHS rather than pay out of pocket retail vet costs. It is not the cats' fault they are sick and abandoned, it is peoples' fault this happens but the cats are being punished by lack of affordable care and inability to curb this human behavior. Where is the accountability?

Please help these cats now by donating anything you can

In an attempt to get emergency funding NOW we have set up a funding page. Our goal is to raise $15,000. $6,000 of this goes to pay freight on a container of donated food to be shared among caretakers.  The rest goes directly to the vet in a fund to be used by responsible volunteers for emergency treatment. Please donate anything you can. No amount is too small.  $5 will feed 50 cats. Click on the link above or cut and past the bottom link into your browser. https://www.youcaring.com/for-forgotten-felines-562515