GOOD CAT NETWORK FLIES 340 HAWAIʻI CATS TO WASHINGTON STATE FOR ADOPTION IN FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION

Young non-profit makes strides in the rescue world on shoestring budget and small team of volunteers with its Operation Aloha Cat program.

Posted on November 15, 2022, Maui, Hawaiʻi

Good Cat Network, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization operating on the island of Maui, has flown 340 cats to their transfer rescue partners in the Pacific Northwest via a partnership with Aloha Air Cargo in its first year of operation.

Since November 2021, bi-monthly cargo flights have flown an average of 14 cats per flight to partner shelters Seattle Humane and PAWS – Progressive Animal Welfare Society, both located in Washington state. Once transferred to these shelters, the cats are usually adopted within a week of being on the floor. All 340 cats transferred through the program have been adopted into forever homes.

An integral component to Good Cat Network’s mission is to remove as many adoptable cats and kittens as possible from the Hawaiʻi landscape by finding them loving homes outside of the islands, which helps compassionately and effectively protect Hawaiʻi’s fragile ecosystem.

Based on general cat reproduction math, these 340 cats had the potential to become approximately 5000 additional cats per year if they were not spayed or neutered.

The cost of a typical Operation Aloha cat flight is $2000. Good Cat Network cannot yet apply for large grants so all programs are covered by grass-roots fundraising and individual donors.

Maui does not have any county-funded no-kill shelters, so the public turns to Good Cat Network and like-minded rescues to ensure that the animal will not be euthanized due to space concerns, or returned to the landscape if there’s a chance for socialization.

The majority of the cats in the Operation Aloha Cat program were rescued by local individuals and fostered by Good Cat Network fosters. These fosters ensure the cats are socialized and can live indoors as house cats. Approximately one-third of the cats in the program were from other local non-profits who specialize in removing cats from the landscape, such as Rescue Kitties of Hawaiʻi on Oahu, Homeward Bound in Napili, or Surf Cat Ranch in Haiku.

Good Cat Network has also collaborated with local native species non-profits such as Maui Nui Seabird Restoration and Maui Forestbird Restoration, with future plans to expand the Operation Aloha Cat program. Good Cat Network hopes to continue the discussion with the public and community leaders, focusing on new research and innovative ways to humanely reduce the feral and community cat populations in Hawaiʻi.