Hawaiian conservation groups reported a disturbing scene this week after discovering 168 mangled carcasses of native seabirds scattered across a beach on the island of Kauaʻi.
What's happening?
According to the Honolulu Civil Beat, members of the Archipelago Research and Conservation group were notified on Wednesday that countless 'Ua'u kani, also called wedge-tailed shearwaters, had been killed and mutilated.
Local conservation groups jointly posted images (warning: graphic images showing deceased birds) and information about the "mass slaughter event" on Instagram, explaining that "these were all adult birds returning to their burrows to start breeding and were killed by cats (as clearly evidenced by the nature of their injuries)."
The executive director of the Hawaiʻi Audubon Society, Keith Swindle, told Honolulu Civil Beat that feral cats killing native birds is a "huge issue" and that the cats, which are invasive in Hawaiʻi, can be found "literally from the beaches to the mountaintops on every island now."
Hawaiʻi's Department of Land and Natural Resources had previously estimated that the southern coast of Kauaʻi had a population of roughly 1,500 wedge-tailed shearwaters, making this mass killing a major loss.
Bret Mossman, a government employee for the state's Forestry and Wildlife Division, succinctly told Honolulu Civil Beat that "our birds just cannot deal with these kinds of apex predators."
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What is being done?
Many of the conservationists familiar with this mass killing, also described as "absolute carnage," called on pet owners to neuter their cats and keep them indoors. Conservationist Aliana Ho explained to Hawaii News Now that "it's never been about like, no cats, cats shouldn't exist … but it's about being a responsible pet owner."
At the governmental level, officials had already made it illegal to feed feral cats four years ago in Kauaʻi.
This year, lawmakers at the state level considered, but failed to pass, HB 1736, which would have established the Spay and Neuter Special Fund to address the state's free-roaming cat population. Yet, many animal welfare groups argued over the effectiveness and ethics of related trap-neuter-release programs.
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