Animals in need of help, after Maui fires

welcome back we've seen the images with the devastation on Maui has left thousands of people and animals displaced and joining us now live from Maui to talk about the impact to animals and how you can help is Maui Humane Society director of marketing Katie Shannon and Katie thank you so much for being here we know you're really busy can you tell us first what kind of situation the Humane Society is dealing with right now absolutely it has been devastating here on Maui but you know what the Maui Community hasn't answered we have had so many volunteers and hundreds of donations here at the shelter which is phenomenal because what we are doing is prepping kennels uh pop-up kennels and emergency kits to develop and actually provide to the shelters for assistance for the people that need it most um so we are developing or we are providing different uh emergency kits to War Memorial and to Maui High School we're also providing them to uh hanabell uh Tavares Community Center and bahalaya harbor because this is where people are going to be bringing their animals once they the roads are open um we have been able to uh just distribute them so far there are hundreds and thousands of people that are have needed to evacuate or are just displaced and so we know that animals will follow um and so we've been able to develop uh distribute them so far and you know we're looking we were seeing some images earlier as you were talking to us of you know some animals that were burned so have you been seeing a lot of animals I know you're expecting an influx though right exactly so we've had a few animals that have come through we actually have a dog that has just arrived while we've been sitting on this call but we have had a burn victim of a dog and uh you know the the scorched Paws all the way down to the bones just so terrifying and the the whiskers are just so scorched from the fire um that she was running away from she was actually picked up by a firefighter uh and saved and then brought to emergency Personnel who dropped her off at my Humane Society the number one thing that we're going to be asking people to do is to file lost reports for their pets because what we want to do is reunite their owners with their pets when we once we are able uh to have that road open and actually attend to you know the the strategy that is happening so so how exactly can people go about doing that what do they need to do now if they are looking for their pets so it also is so difficult because the cell service and Communications on Lahaina are still discontinued or you know disconnected and so we are asking people once they are able to if they can hear this um you know to file lost reports on our website mauihumanesociety.org and if there are family members that might be able to do that for them that's that's perfect basically we just need some basic information um and a photo of the animal and so that we can reunite the and the contact information so we can reunite the the human and the pet this will really allow us to you know allow you know allow them to reunite as quickly as possible we're also asking people for monetary donations uh and that is because we know that there are going to be animals in such horrible uh shape and needing life-saving medical procedures when they arrive and the donations will be able to to ensure that these costs are going to be covered so that we we can continue to serve the community to the best of our ability and there's something that you created right to help make it a little bit easier folks want to maybe help Foster or even you know across the state explain that a little bit yes we've created a Facebook group that's called Maui fired pet help group and this is really to connect people that are here on Maui that need help to the people that can offer help and so this is an opportunity for the community to come together because although we would love to be able to help every single person we know that our resources are only as fast or as limited um as we're able to move and so we are going to need this entire Island and all of the Hawaiian Islands to work together to really rebuild Maui you know we are only 48 Hours really into this tragedy and we are we are waiting to be able to to help those uh that need it most but this community group will allow people to connect together and hopefully try to rebuild Maui as quickly as possible and real quick before we let you go you know do the shelters have enough food toys everything that you need cat litter do you have all of that or should people be making donations if they can I will say the community has showed up and given a tremendous amount of supplies but we know that they are they're limited um and so we are going to be handing these out to all of the shelters and anyone who comes to Maui Humane Society needing help the number one thing that we need are pop-up kennels to ensure that animals can stay contained we also need kitty litter um we have a very large amount of community cats on island and pet cats you know we heard about people running out of their homes with cats underneath their arms um and of course we can always use additional pet food whether it's wet or dry and treats and of course keeping our pets in uh enriched with uh with toys would be phenomenal as well really anything that people are willing to donate we will take we will distribute you know without being able to be there on the ground it is hard to determine and be able to assess what the true needs are and so we are just really anticipating right now and prepping as much as possible so that we can be there to to answer the call once that railroad is open yeah we hope that's sooner than later of course there's monetary donations were really helpful Katie Shannon director marketing at Maui Humane Society thank you so much for joining us gotta take care of our fur babies definitely

Channel: Island News

Views: 31,658

Keywords: localnow

Id: VPFmcFtUugA

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023