STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3097

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2593

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2593, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FERAL CATS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to promote the humane treatment of feral cats by:

(1) Requiring an unspecified agency to contract with a nonprofit animal rescue group to oversee caretakers of feral cats;

(2) Exempting registered caretakers of feral cats from state and county laws relating to the feeding and confinement of cats; provided that the caretakers are registered with the contracted rescue group; and

(3) Establishing a feral cat trap-sterilize-return process.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Association of Animal Welfare Agencies, Hawaiian Humane Society, The Humane Society of the United States, West Hawaii Humane Society, Joey's Feline Friends, Poi Dogs & Popoki, Cat People of Oahu, #SpeakUp Movement, Hawaii Happy Cats, Animal Rights Hawai‘i, Feline Foundation of Maui, and one hundred two individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, American Bird Conservancy, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Conservation Council for Hawaii, and twenty-six individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and two individuals.

Your Committees find that free-roaming cat issues remain complex and controversial. This measure proposes to recognize and register cat caregivers to ensure the use of standard cat management practices, generate data to guide ongoing or future efforts, and afford protections only to those individuals who are in compliance with such standards of care, which must include recognition of areas where cats should not be managed or maintained due to wildlife or other concerns. Your Committees further find that it is critical to the State's efforts to protect indigenous and endangered wildlife that free-roaming cat populations be reduced; however, a balance must be struck to provide humane treatment to free-roaming cats. Trap-sterilize-return-manage is a process that allows for humane treatment and population reduction of free-roaming cats.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Replacing the terms "caretaker", "contracted rescue group", "feral cat", and "trap-sterilize-return" with "caregiver", "animal care or rescue group", "free-roaming cat", and "trap-sterilize-return-manage", respectively;

(2) Deleting unnecessary definitions;

(3) Clarifying the definitions of "animal care or rescue group", "caregiver", and "trap-sterilize-return-manage";

(4) Deleting language that would have required a state agency to contract with a rescue group;

(5) Clarifying that animal care or rescue groups may register caregivers of free-roaming cats; provided that they meet certain record keeping, reporting, and management responsibilities and requirements;

(6) Requiring animal care or rescue groups to make reasonable efforts to mediate and resolve concerns regarding the presence of a known free-roaming cat colony managed by a registered caregiver on or immediately adjacent to property managed by a federal, state, or county agency for the primary purpose of protection of wildlife;

(7) Requiring animal care or rescue groups to submit annual reports relating to the trap-sterilize-return-manage process to the Senate standing committee and the House of Representatives standing committee whose purviews include agriculture;

(8) Providing that registered caregivers are exempt from any state or county statute, ordinance, regulation, rule, or other law that:

(A) Prohibits the feeding or care of stray cats or requires a permit to do so;

(B) Mandates the confinement of cats; or

(C) Limits the number of cats that a person may own, harbor, or have custody of;

(9) Clarifying that the registered caregiver exemption shall not be construed to limit the enforcement of any law or ordinance requiring the sterilization of cats or prohibiting cruelty to animals;

    (10) Clarifying the responsibilities of a registered caregiver in the trap-sterilize-return-manage process;

    (11) Deleting the requirement for the Department of Health to adopt administrative rules necessary for this measure;

    (12) Requiring animal care or rescue groups to submit a five-year summary report on the results of the trap-sterilize-return-manage process to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023;

    (13) Amending the preamble to reflect its amended purpose;

    (14) Changing its effective date to January 1, 2018, and inserting a repeal date of December 31, 2022; and

    (15) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committees request that as this measure moves forward, your Committee on Judiciary consider the concerns raised in testimony regarding entry of caregivers upon protected wildlife habitats.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2593, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2593, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair