Even after he lost his job and couldn't pay rent, a Paia man tried to keep providing for four orphaned kittens he had rescued.
The kittens were living with the man in his car. Then they needed medical care he couldn't afford.
Not wanting to see the sickly animals put to sleep, he turned them over to the East Maui Animal Refuge, said Wendy Fisher, a volunteer at the nonprofit organization.
"He said, 'I have just invested too much love in these guys,'" Fisher recalled. "It was really sad for him, but he was relieved to have someplace to take them."
Fisher spent four weeks treating and nursing the male kittens back to health. Now she is trying to find homes for the four in the midst of an economic downturn that has led to a drop in donations and rise in animals needing homes at Maui animal welfare organizations.
At the Maui Humane Society, Chief Executive Officer Jocelyn Bouchard said people are still turning in pets after losing jobs and homes. Some families are moving to the Mainland and can't afford to take pets with them.
But compared with the deluge of pets in the months right after the economy began to falter late last year, "it seems to have slowed down a little bit," she said.
"I don't want to say we're past it or have seen the end of it," Bouchard said. "But we're definitely not experiencing the high volume that we did earlier this year."
In the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ended in June, the number of dogs taken into the Puunene shelter increased by 4 percent, from 2,184 for the same period last year to 2,264 this year. (Numbers for June were not available as of Tuesday, Bouchard said.) For cats, the increase was 17 percent, with 5,728 felines coming into the shelter in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, compared with 4,890 last year.
A few months this year, animal adoptions increased at the shelter, Bouchard said, possibly because people realize the Maui Humane Society is an affordable place to find pets. The $85 fee for dog adoptions, for example, includes spaying or neutering, deworming and a first vaccination.
"It's still the best deal in town, and we have lots of variety," she said.
But, in another sign of hard times, the nonprofit agency is receiving more requests for help with spaying and neutering of pets, especially large dogs that are expensive to sterilize, Bouchard said.
"People are looking to save where they can," she said.
There also are concerns that pet owners are delaying routine examinations and treatment for pets, which could lead to more serious health problems, Bouchard said.
She noted that earlier this year, there was an outbreak of parvo, a contagious disease, among dogs on Maui.
And while services are needed more, the nonprofit agency is coping with a drop in donations and a 14 percent cut from the Maui County general fund, which makes up about half of the agency's annual budget. (The agency's general fund appropriation fell from about $1.5 million in fiscal 2009 to $1.28 million this fiscal year; although the Humane Society may seek $150,000 this year from the county's Animal Management Revolving Fund.)
"We're lucky we haven't had to do things like layoffs," Bouchard said. "We do have some frozen positions. We're certainly working short-staffed in some areas."
Donations also have dipped even as demands have risen at the East Maui Animal Refuge in Haiku and at 9th Life Hawaii, which runs a no-kill cat shelter Upcountry.
"We are being begged to take animals from people who have lost their homes," Phyllis Tavares, 9th Life executive director, wrote in a commentary. "They may be moving into something less expensive where animals are not allowed.
"They may be moving to the Mainland in the hopes of finding employment and in that case they simply cannot afford the cost of shipping their beloved pets to the Mainland."
She said that a veterinarian's certificate required by airlines costs at least $80 and airfare for an animal is more than $100. A crate to transport an animal can cost $30 to $150.
Tavares said some pets are being dumped at parks and beaches and in sugar cane fields.
And kitten season has brought another influx.
With almost 300 cats and kittens being housed at 9th Life, the organization is trying to adopt out 120 kittens that volunteers have raised by hand after obtaining them from the Maui Humane Society. With starting weights of 1 pound or less, the kittens otherwise would have been euthanized, Tavares said.
The East Maui Animal Refuge - also known as the Boo Boo Zoo - issued a plea for donations earlier this year.
"The economy's affected us the same as everybody else," said Sylvan Schwab, who runs the refuge that takes in wildlife and other animals with life-threatening injuries.
"We don't take pets, although I get a lot of calls," he said. "It does seem I'm getting a lot of calls from people who are looking for new homes for their animals."
Fisher is confident she'll find homes for the 3-month-old now healthy kittens, including two that are part-Siamese.
"Good homes always come along," she said. "When I first got them, they were really weak, injured. Now they're regular rambunctious, crazy kids, ready to jump and play. They do nothing but purr. It's day and night."
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
