 Aloha, I am your host Winston Welton and I am delighted that you are joining us today for another exciting and informative episode of Out and About where every other week we explore a variety of topics, organizations, and events with the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and not connected with any organization. That said, joining me in the studio today, I am delighted to have a couple of very special ladies, Mandy D'Souza, Humane Education Manager and Sharon Saiga Yadoro, a volunteer and outreach coordinator of the Hawaiian Humane Society. It's an organization close to my heart where I've gotten two of my fur babies. Welcome to the show today and thanks for being my guest. Thanks for having us. Thank you. So we, I don't know that everybody even knows what the Hawaiian Humane Society is, although I think probably most people have some idea about it, but tell us what is the Hawaiian Humane Society? Yeah. What goes on there? Absolutely. Well, the Hawaiian Humane Society's mission is to promote the human-animal bond and the humane treatment of all animals. Really we're an education and advocacy organization and we have over 30 different programs and services related to our mission. 30 different programs and services related to your mission. That is a lot of different programs and services. So this is, I take it, a pretty large staff that you've got working there and probably an army of volunteers. An army of volunteers, yes. Sharon can attest to that where we have about 70 active, or 70 staff members and we have about 600 plus volunteers, active volunteers. Wow. 600 volunteers and I, from what I was reading on your website, you actually have a waiting list for volunteers. Is that right? We're not accepting volunteer applications for the shelter, but we also have other volunteer opportunities. Okay. So there might be something that's not shelter, but it might be another thing and we'll get to that as we go down in there. So there is hope for people who want to volunteer their services and their time to the Humane Society and I know animals are so important for humans. It's a fundamental bond in the animal kingdom. We love our pets so much, whether it's dogs or cats, but you also have other animals are too. Rabbits and... Yes, yes. We have cats, dogs, rabbits, skinny pigs, chinchillas, turtles, birds, you name it. No snakes. No snakes. Yes. That being said, we are an amnesty site and so as an amnesty site, there has been times that snakes have come into our organization, but it's no questions asked. We work with the proper authorities to figure out where that snake can go. Okay. That's a really nice thing about Hawaii. If you have a snake, turn it in. A Humane Society or another amnesty site, we do not want them here. They can stay wherever they live, but not in Hawaii. So the Humane Society's mission is to promote the animal, human bond and well-being of animals. And the humane treatment of all animals. Humane treatment of all animals. And so that encompasses a lot of different things from, I suppose it could be anything from pet care to factory farming and zoos. And are there positions of your policies online that we can find out information about just in case our viewers want to go in and follow us with your website? Yeah, of course. Hawaiianhumane.org is our website and there is a lot of information about kind of who we are, the programs and services that we have, as well as some of our positions on those issues. Okay, so tell us about your location. Do you just have one location or is it more than one location? Right now, we're one location in Mo'Ili'Ili, about a block from the University of Hawaii. We are looking forward to opening our second campus in West Oahu in the future, though. You have a site already picked out for that? We do. DR Horton actually generously donated a few acres of land for our second campus that we'll be opening. Okay, and so tell us how would the average person come into contact with the Humane Society as a client or with a need? Well, there's many different ways. So one of the services that we have, of course, is animal adoptions. So we're open seven days a week and if anybody is interested in coming to our campus and seeing what animals we have available, we are open to the public. As far as volunteer programs, that's another program that we have for people who might be interested in getting involved in our mission. So people, maybe they're kind of, they can't have a dog, but they would just want to help you out. Maybe there's dog walking opportunities or some other opportunities that would get to that in a minute. But how about when people have to surrender a dog for some reason, they're moving or maybe somebody passes away and they can't take care of an animal anymore or something along or unfortunately an animal might be found or that sort of situation? I see. Yes. Our Admission Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so we really believe that those hours are really critical to help prevent things like animal cruelty, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. And you do, that is one of your services that you have is you do have officers that go out into the community for reported cases of neglect and cruelty. Is that correct? Yes. Absolutely. Yep. We have our big field services, vans and trucks. They're big and green with animals on the sides. And our field investigators go out into the community to help address these issues. And they work hand in hand with the police if they find some issue? Or do they have a sort of administrative powers as well to take an animal if they find a situation? Kind of complicated there. I'm in 1897. Actually, our organization was established in 1883. So we are one of the oldest animal welfare organizations in the nation and the second oldest charitable organization in the state. But in 1897, we are granted the authority to enforce animal cruelty laws. And so our humane investigators do go out to investigate these types of issues, but we don't necessarily have the authority to take animals away from their owners. That would go through the court system. It would. Okay. Well, as long as there's some mechanism for it, because it's like with kids, right? Most people are conscientious parents, but occasionally you get some bad season there. And for the welfare of the child. Step in. Yeah, and what's so important there to understand is a huge role that our field investigators play is to educate the community about what it means to be a responsible pet owner and animal welfare issues. And so a huge part of what our field investigators do is educate. So they might go out and they might see a problem or maybe it maybe it's a dog that's barking all the time because he's on a one meter leash or something like that. And so your educators will go out there, see what the issue is and see if they can help solve the problem right on site with the with the yeah, that'd be our first goal. Yes. Okay. And I use the term pet parents because I am a pet parent, but other people might say pet owners. So this is a so the second oldest charitable organization in Hawaii, which is impressive and certainly one of the oldest in the country. You have a whole bunch of different programs. When people come to adopt an animal from you, how hard is it? Do they have to go through some sort of background check or do you have to make sure that they can even have an animal or that's a cost money or? Yeah, our our adoptions representatives are trained to ask community members kind of what their lifestyle is like, what their home situation is like, just so that they can kind of play matchmaker to help them get the pet that best meets their needs and expectations. But there isn't a background check or things like that. Okay. And there's some fee or if when you do it adopt a pet and that's mostly to pay for the spay and neuter I'm guessing and and just to keep your operations up and running. Yes. Typically the fee for cat and dog adoptions is $85. But what's important to keep in mind is all of the animals that are available for adoption come with their sterilization surgery, their microchipped about $250 worth of of health assessments goes into those animals prior to being made available for adoption. So that's obviously not being covered by the adoption fee itself. And you have to rely on generous community support, generous community support and if people want to donate to you, I'm sure that you have a very robust donations department that accepts people's gifts. And I know a lot of the times people probably think I'm not leaving any money to my kids. I'm leaving it to the Humane Society, right? And you probably get a lot of very ardent and passionate people leaving you money and their requests, which I totally get. And and agree with. So tell us, Sharon, you've got a lot of really wonderful programs out there and outreach programs. So we've got a couple of them up here on slides. And I would like to go to our first slide, which is this one here. So I guess these are a couple of your volunteers. This is their dog washing volunteers. So like we had discussed earlier, our shelter volunteer opportunities where we have a wait list. So we're waiting for people to come in for training and orientation. But we do have lots of, we have shelter volunteer opportunities. But we have a wait list right now. But they help with animal enrichment, animal care here at the shelter. So in that case, somebody has, there's either been a dog that's been found or surrendered to the Humane Society and they're getting her or him pretty and ready for display for adoption. OK. And so that is one part that you have. There is volunteers getting, taking care of the pets. They're basic needs from intake to adoption, I suppose. And then that includes also walking the dogs around the area. So our enrichment volunteers, we have dog walking, cat house adoption. So it's important to keep the animals, you know, happy and healthy. Yeah, exactly. As happy as they can be while they're waiting for their forever home. Exactly, exactly. And you've got a dog park right on site in Moe Lele, too. We actually used to. Oh, we used to. OK, sorry. We were so lucky though that in the last several years, we rebuilt our admission center. And so we have a new admission center and a new veterinary clinic, which did take the place of the dog park. OK. Well, you know, I suppose there's some trade-offs that have to be made, but you've got a nice new state of the art building that takes care of that stuff. So that's great. But I see volunteers sometimes walking around the dogs in the neighborhood and just playing with them and loving on them, which is awesome. Let's look at the next slide that we've got here, which I think is also really, really critical one. Tell us about this one if you would. Yeah, we have our monthly pet loss support group. This is our support group that we have for pet owners who have recently lost their pet. They meet every first Tuesday of the month. We have our volunteer, Rosemary Grig. She is a grief counselor, and she helps process the grief. And what's going on right here? This looks like there's a cake, or they're making lays, or what is that? Yeah, Rosemary actually just celebrated her 20th anniversary of volunteering with us. So some of the volunteers got her a cake. She actually made lays for everyone in the group. Oh, that's awesome. So 20 years of a lady volunteering and helping other people through their loss of their pets. I'm sure you have a lot of passionate volunteers that have been there for a while. And you are a 501C3, so you're driven by a board president and a board of directors. Correct. And then you have a professional staff that runs the organization. And then you have the employees that flow underneath them. Now tell us how long have you both been, or each been with the organization? I've been with Hawaiian Humane for about two and a half years. Two and a half years? Just made about a year in December. Just made about a year in December. OK, so let's continue looking at some of these other programs that you've got up here for that next slide that we've got there. This looks like a group of folks that are doing what are they doing? This is our monthly hike. So we have a hike group, pause on the path. And this was actually taken this past Saturday where we did Waimano loop trail and prosody. So we make monthly, every last Saturday of the month. And we take pet owners on hikes with their pets that are pet friendly. Do you also take some of the shelter dogs on that one as well? No, we don't. OK, so that's a pet friendly walk. And it's the last Saturday of the month. And you choose a different location around the island. And it looks like you got about 25 people that showed up for that one or something like that. That is really awesome. And where was that again at Waimano? In Waimano loop trail in prosody. OK, let's look at the next one that we've got here as well. This is, I think, a really special picture here. Tell us what's going on here. Yeah, this is part of our pet visitation program. So we have about 91 volunteer teams. It's pet owners and their pets. They visit 54 facilities throughout the state, our program partners. And our program partners include hospitals, assisted living facilities, also care homes, nursing homes, where their volunteers go and they visit with their pets. That is so awesome. And so you said there's 54 facilities that they visit throughout the state? Yes. Boy, that's a lot of logistical coordination for you as a volunteer coordinator. It is. It is, but it's fun. Yeah, it's worth it. And just that brings so much joy to all those folks who maybe they can't have a pet in those facilities. And so they must be terribly missing a dog coming around. And I see that dog was wearing a tag saying Joy Ambassador. Yep, that's what our volunteer pets are called, Joy Ambassadors. And are those volunteer pets like my dog, or are they dogs from the shelters that are actually going out? Some of the teams have been adopted from the Humane Society. A lot of them are people's own pets that they obtained on their own. I'm sorry to say it again. Some of them are not adopted from the Hawaiian Humane Society. So some might be my pet that I'm taking out as a Joy Ambassador as part of your program, just to share in the joy of pets with folks who are missing that joy. I think that's a really special program. 54 different places. Do you hit every one every month, or is it? We try to. We try to. Our volunteers do try to make their visits. Some of them, it's dependent on their schedule because it's a volunteer activity dependent. Some go once a week. Some go once a month. We try to get. That's an awesome program. And again, so we're going to take a little break here. But in the studio again today with me is Mandy D'Souza, the Humane Education Manager, and Sharon Saigai Yadoro, volunteer and outreach coordinator of the Hawaiian Humane Society, a great organization that has helped so many people find a lot of love. And your slogan is, humans for animals and animals for humans? Or is it the opposite way around? People for animals, animals for people. People for animals, animals for people. That's a great slogan. And like I said, I've got my own fur babies from there. And as have many of you out there watching. And if you are thinking about that you really have time and energy and love for a pet, then do not go shopping for one. Go to the Humane Society and find one that needs some love. That is our closing thought until we come back from our break. In the meantime, you can go to hawaiinhumane.org if you want to see a little bit more before we get back. Hello, I'm Dave Stevens, host of the Cyber Underground. This is where we discuss everything that relates to computers that just kind of scare you out of your mind. So come join us every week here on thinktecawaii.com 1 p.m. on Friday afternoons. And then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube, just look up the Cyber Underground on YouTube. All our shows will show up and please follow us. We're always giving you current, relevant information to protect you. Keepin' you safe. Aloha. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines. And it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. Hey, we're back and we're live. And this is out and about on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series, where every other week we talk to really special guests. Today we're talking with guests from the Hawaiian Humane Society and organization's second oldest charity in the state and one of the oldest animal humane societies in the country. Probably the world for that matter. Mandy DeSousa, Humane Education Manager, and Sharon Saga Yadoro, it's a little bit of a mouthful volunteer and outreach coordinator for the organization. So we were talking before the break about some of the things that you do and that you have to coordinate and you were, we went over the hiking club we got on the end of Saturdays, pet lots support group which meets monthly on Tuesdays, is that right? First Tuesday of the month. First Tuesday, all kinds of volunteer programs and so they, if people want to volunteer where do they go to do that? You can check out, you can email me at volunteer at hawainhumane.org or our website. Or your website and you probably have a form that you got to fill out and say, I'm interested in this side or the other and then you get back to them as time and opportunity allows. You have a pet visitation program which I think is just terrific. You said you went to 54 places on this island. You don't, this is not a statewide organization then. Just Oahu. Just Oahu, okay. And you also are the folks that people call if there's crowing chickens or barking dogs, is that true also? Correct. Okay, so you have that end as well. I'm sure you get the crowing chicken ones a fair amount as well. So, and then there's the whole cat thing which I won't get into the feral cat colonies and there's probably a position on that at thehumanesociety.org but I realized when I, in my community garden it is an issue best left untouched because there is no win on that. But let's just say people love pets and they love their cats and the cats that are actually caught by the Humane Society get sterilized and then put back in the colonies. Is that right? Yeah, the Hawaiian Humane Society, we actually just opened our brand new community spay neuter center. And so community members can bring their pet dogs and cats as well as free roaming cats into the center for their sterilization surgery. And you're referring to what we call TNRM or trap neuter return manage and every cat, free roaming cat that comes in for the sterilization surgery gets their ear notched. And the one year is for male, one is for female, is that right? That's correct. Okay, and then they release back in. Is this free to do the surgery or is it like a sliding scale or how does that work? You know, I'm not exactly sure what the cost is for free roaming cats. Our new center though, we recently invested about $2 million into this center and the goal was to make it affordable for community members in all situations. Obviously to control the pet population spaying and neutering is the only way to go. And every pet that comes out of there is a spayed or neuter so you don't have to worry about your kitten or your cat or your dog coming home and having a litter of puppies later on down the road which is a great feature when you get a pet at the Humane Society. So tell us also, we had another fantastic program that I'm sure most people don't know about and that is our next slide up here which is about this and what's going on here, Sharon. This is our pet food bank. So the Hawaiian Humane Society, we do offer temporary assistance for people who are struggling, going through hard times. If you're having trouble feeding your pet, you are more than welcome to come down to the Hawaiian Humane Society to put out a pet food bank application. And so is that donations from individuals they give to that or is that like Petland and Petco and that sort of thing as well? Yep, they're supplied dominantly by our community donations. By community donations, okay. So I might just, next time I'm at Costco, I might come by and just get an extra bag of chow or some case of cat food or whatever did I wanna do and drop it off for you folks. And you probably need other things too like kitty litter and or maybe not, maybe you guys are more echo than that. You probably have a whole description online of what you need. We do. Okay, so if- Cowels, newspapers, lots of things. Toys, okay, so before you drop something off, check out their website and make sure that you're giving them what they need so that they don't have to throw it out. Is that also available for medications, heartworm and that sort of thing as well? Just food, just food. Just food, okay. So it's tough, it's expensive to own a pet and they require care like children do and regular checkups. Does your organization offer regular sort of veterinary services like you might get at a vet or is that completely separate? At this point for the community, all we can offer is the spayneuter surgery through our new clinic. And you probably have a lot of look, area vets that come in and work sometimes at the Humane Society as well as their own practice. Do you work with Petco and Petland and other places to have like pet fairs where you come and adopt a pet and that sort of thing? Petco and PetSmart, yes. Regularly on the weekends, we have offsite adoption events and they're very supportive in our mission. On the weekends, okay. Okay, so now from more of the educational aspects, I think that pet food bank is a really great idea and something that, you know, you wanna do it for humans and we don't always think about pets, but it's a natural thing too. For our education, we've got another series of slides up here about what you're doing also there. And if you would tell us about this, Mandy, what is going on here besides a little Pomeranian getting a lot of love? Absolutely, so this is actually one of our pet visitation teams who joined us for a presentation. As part of our education programming, we offer presentations to schools and youth organizations around the island of Oahu for students in grades one through 12 primarily, but we also work with college groups. Really just talking to students about responsible pet ownership and animal welfare issues. Are you the one that goes out and does that or do you have a team that goes out as well? I do as well as I have a team. I have two other ladies on my team. How many of these students that you go and see don't actually don't have a pet or have never had a pet? And this might be, what, the first dog or cat? Is it usually dogs that you go out with? Primarily dogs, join us for those presentations as much as possible. And how many kids don't really don't have it? Any contact with pets? It really just depends. A lot of times students are really educated and have had experience with pets and sometimes they haven't, and so it just kind of depends. Do you find that we've got this one up here, another event, and this is, is he a VIP? I see he's a Joy and Master too. What a cute dog he is. Oh my goodness, are she? What's going on here? Yeah, that was taken at a community event. That was taken at Children and Youth Day, which is an annual event at the Capitol. And so my education team goes to community events, school events, and educates about these issues. What about the walk around Alamwana Park or Magic Island? That's you all, isn't it? Pet Walk. Pet Walk, okay, I've done that before and I should know better, but you have a huge presence down there, and when does that take place? Every October. Every October, so it should be a little bit cooler. Yeah, and then you just, and people, is it raising money? Yep, it's our biggest community fundraiser of the year. This last year was actually the first time that it was not held at Alamwana Beach Park, so I'm not sure what the exact plans are for this year. But yes, it's our biggest fundraiser and we encourage community members to bring their pets to really to celebrate the human-animal bond. Yeah, and that's exactly what it's all about. And I think as we become in society more and more isolated from each other, just living in maybe as alone or just with two people instead of your traditional larger families where you had more communication. I think a lot of times these pets are really taking the place of humans and children and this is just a reality and dogs and cats are particularly well-suited for this, but I think for other people, it's probably they feel the same about the rats and guinea pigs and rabbits too. Yeah, and that's the human-animal bond. I think that more and more people are recognizing their animal companions as family members. Yeah, as family members. And so you advocate for certain things probably you have a position on the animals in the restaurants right now or is that true? Yes, absolutely, yeah. That is a bill that the Hawaiian Humane Society is supporting is to allow restaurant owners to have their discretion if they would like their establishment to be pet-friendly or not. Viewers who are interested in that can learn more at Hawaiianhumane.org. Okay, and we've got a couple more slides before we have to unfortunately wrap up. This is Teens for Animals, so this is what's going on with these guys. Yeah, so those are a few of our council members as part of our Teens for Animals Council. We have a group of about 15 youth from about 10 or 11 public and private schools from around the island who have committed to a one-year term of working with the Hawaiian Humane Society and really just helping to promote responsible partnership in their schools and communities and to promote the human animal bond. Do you find the younger people are more savvy about this than older people are or do they have a totally different take on animals or do you see any big differences there? I think that the students are just as passionate about animal welfare issues as adults are too. Yeah, and there's a whole bunch more that of course we could not get to today as we never can on Out and About, but the Humane Society's mission is an awesome one. They do such great work for our community, for animals, for humans. Support them, love them, volunteer with them, give them money, time, and a lot of aloha. When you need a pet, don't go shopping, go get one at the Humane Society. If you have the time and the ability to have a pet and if you don't, then don't. But they can certainly use your help, just walking dogs and that sort of thing, so go and visit Sharon, who is our volunteer coordinator. And your last name is, say it again for me. Sakaedoro. Yes, thank you. It's a tougher one and Mandy D'Souza is a little bit easier. Our Humane Education Manager, who have been joining me today from the Hawaiian Humane Society. It has been a great pleasure to have you on here. Thank you for the wonderful work that you do every day and on behalf of everybody at the Humane Society, I wanna thank you as well and a lot of aloha for your organization and it's my pleasure to have you on here today and I hope you'll come back another time and maybe we could bring in some animals or something and do a show and tell or something else with some other people. So that is all we have time for today. Unfortunately, I thank you for tuning in and welcoming your feedback. You got an idea for me? Send it to me, I'm happy to entertain it. Thanks to our broadcast engineer, Robert McLean, our floor manager, Eric Calander and to Jay Fidale, our executive producer, puts it all together. Today I would like to give a special shout out to my dear friend, Jeff, who made his transition yesterday and he will be sorely missed. So I will see you sometime in the future, Jeff, but until then, ahui ho. I will see you here every other Monday at 3 p.m. for more of Out and About on Think Tech. Aloha everyone.