But a new study published in the journal, Conservation Biology, says the majority of Hawaii residents think there are too many feral cats in Hawaii. The preferred strategy for removing them? Death by lethal injection. 

Eighty-seven percent of the 1,510 respondents said that the number of feral cats should be decreased, while 78 percent supported removing the cats from the environment permanently. 

Killing the cats with a lethal injection was the preferred technique for cat removal, while trapping the cats, neutering them and then releasing them back into the environment was the least preferred method.

The American Bird Conservancy has taken particular interest in the study, stressing the damage cats have on the Hawaii bird populations and the spread of feline diseases.

From an American Bird Conservancy press release: 

The issue of feral cat management is especially pressing in Hawai’i. While Hawai’i is a place that conjures up images of a tropical paradise, the state claims the unfortunate title of “bird extinction capital of the world.” Non-native cats have certainly played a role in these extinctions, as they are known predators of many of Hawaii’s most imperiled bird species, including Hawaiian Petrel, Newell’s Shearwater, and Palila, among others.

“There is no place else on earth that has witnessed the levels of bird extinctions that have occurred in Hawai’i,” said George Wallace, Vice President for Oceans and Islands for ABC. “Since the arrival of Europeans to the Hawaiian Islands, 71 endemic bird species have become extinct out of a total of 113 that existed just prior to human colonization. Of the remaining 42, 32 are federally listed, and 10 of those have not even been seen for at least 40 years.”

Here’s a link to the full press release. 

Photo: Feral cats in Iao Valley, Maui, colloquially referred to as “Meow Valley” (Flickr: Sara Golemon)

— Sophie Cocke