A MESSAGE FROM ANNA

One of Hawai‘i’s most recognized albums, at home and around the globe, is Facing Future by the legendary Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole. We’d like to think he would be pleased that Hawaiian Humane is facing its future by expanding services to the people and neighborhoods of West O‘ahu.

In this issue we share our excitement about that future while preparing to celebrate our long and storied history.

July 24, 2023, marks 140 years since the founding of the Hawaiian Humane Society, translated in the first ever dictionary of ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i as ‘Ahahui Kū‘ē i ka Ho‘omāinoino.

The changing face of animal welfare is reflected in Hawaiian Humane’s milestone achievements, as well as its embrace of Socially Conscious Sheltering.

We’ve gone from a focus on enforcement to investing in assistance; from creating barriers to pet ownership, to open adoptions and helping families stay together. We have championed spay/neuter to reduce pet overpopulation, building such robust demand for services that we were able to open first one and soon two community spay/ neuter centers.

We have done all of this in partnership with you. Our commitment as a socially conscious shelter is to align shelter policy with the needs of the community.

Together we will do more. Even as we have improved our facilities to promote animal health and wellbeing, we have increasingly recognized that there are alternatives to shelter care that better meet the needs of most pets. To allow our teams to do more lifesaving work, we have asked community members to do more to help with rehoming, foster care and lost pet reunification to keep animals out of the stressful shelter environment.

We are building the resources to help you help us help animals. You will read about some of those initiatives in this issue, including Home to Home and kitten kits.

The opening of our new campus, which was enthusiastically celebrated as you will see in these pages, grounds us more firmly than ever in our 140-year history of caring for Hawai‘i’s people and animals. We are partnering with schools, public officials, corporate partners and our fellow nonprofi ts in ‘Ewa, Kapolei and Wai‘anae to ensure that we are targeting our services toward community needs. Please watch HawaiianHumane.org and follow us on social media to find ways to join with us in this year of celebration to honor our past and build a brighter future.