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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 18, 2003

New pet quarantine rules may eliminate lengthy stay

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Animal quarantines
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
COST
• 5-days or less Two rabies vaccinations, microchip ID, blood test showing rabies antibodies, 120-day pre-arrival waiting period, health certificate within 14 days of arrival. $165-$224
• 30-day Same as above only with a 90-day pre-arrival waiting period. A post-arrival blood test is eliminated. $655
• 120-day Health certificate only. $1,080

Chris Quackenbush of Community Quarantine Coalition of Hawaii displayed photos of a dog in prison garb to make her point.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

After decades of passionate debate and disagreement, Hawai'i is taking a step toward elimination of controversial pet quarantine rules under certain conditions.

If Gov. Linda Lingle approves regulations passed yesterday by the state Department of Agriculture, pet owners may be able to pick up their animals almost immediately upon arrival in the Islands, bypassing the costly 120-day quarantine that has been the focus of contentious debate.

The state Board of Agriculture voted 6-2 yesterday to eliminate Hawai'i's rabies quarantine for dogs and cats vaccinated twice against the disease if they can pass blood tests 120 days before arrival. The change also will allow Hawai'i residents to travel with their pets and return to Hawai'i without quarantine if all requirements are met before they leave, Lingle said.

The governor has praised the changes and indicated yesterday she will approve them.

Hawai'i's 120-day rabies quarantine has been in place since 1912, after the disease became prevalent in California and officials feared that it would come to Hawai'i next.

For years, pet owners have argued the confinement period for pets coming into the state was too long and placed an emotional and financial burden on pet owners. Currently the state requires animals to be confined for 30 days for a $655 fee, provided immunization and testing requirements are met. If those requirements are not met, the pet must serve the full 120-day quarantine period for $1,080.

Sandra Lee Kunimoto, chairman of the board, said the change includes "adequate safeguards to prevent the introduction of rabies into the state."

The board voted to add a "five days or less" quarantine and a "direct airport release" program to the existing 30- and 120-day quarantine periods, which will remain in effect for animals that don't meet the vaccination or pre-arrival blood test requirements.

Last year, 4,681 dogs and cats completed quarantine here, about 75 percent of them qualifying for the 30-day quarantine program by being vaccinated and having blood tests 90 days before arrival.

Officials estimate half the pets being brought to Hawai'i will meet the "direct airport release" requirements.

Veterinarian Isaac Maeda, program manager at the state's rabies quarantine branch, said a department analysis last year showed reducing quarantine to five days "does not substantially increase the risk of introducing rabies into the state," as long as it is combined with proper rabies vaccination, blood tests and a 120-day waiting period before animals arrive.

State Veterinarian James Fopolli told the board even reducing the quarantine period to less than five days, or releasing the animal from the airport after an examination, would not significantly change the risk compared to a fixed five-day confinement, as long as the waiting period, vaccination and blood test requirements had been met before the animal arrived in Hawai'i.

To have a pet released at the airport, an owner would also have to provide documentation 10 days before arrival that the other requirements had been met, he said.

Animals from rabies-free Guam, Australia, New Zealand and the British Isles are exempt from the requirements. The programs require implanted micro-chip identification of pets involved in all programs except the 120-day quarantine. The board also recommended fees of $224 for five days or less, $165 for direct release from the airport, and continuing fees of $655 for 30-day quarantine and $1,080 for 120-day quarantine.

Chris Quackenbush, founder of the Community Quarantine Coalition of Hawai'i, told the board she supported the change but felt even more can be done. Several others who came to testify at yesterday's hearing agreed, and also took time to criticize the way they said pets and owners alike are treated at the state's quarantine facility.

But one, Jeanne Ishikawa, who said she came to the hearing "to see what all the hoopla was about," said she was thankful for a rabies-free Hawai'i and had had no problems putting her AKC registered dog through four months at the quarantine facility.

And two members of the board warned making life more convenient for pet owners could increase the risk of introduction of rabies and animal-borne parasites to Hawai'i. Board members Wes Sahara of Kaua'i and Sumner Erdman of Maui voted against the measure, saying they felt that at least two rabies vaccinations should be recent. The rule change says only the second vaccination must be recent.

Erdman, a ranch manager, said he favored two recent vaccinations and a 180-day waiting period — like that required in England — before animals testing free of rabies could come to the state.

Sahara said many residents of rural areas on Kaua'i are afraid of what rabies and other parasites could do to farm animals as well as pets.

He noted that deputy chairperson Diane Ley reported that New Zealand is developing a mandatory 40-day quarantine period to control importation of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

Ley told the board she researched the rabies issue and found various experts favor extended observation before an animal is released here.

Those experts said rabies shows up at different time intervals, vaccines can fail and can't overcome rabies already present, and blood tests sometimes confuse rabies with vaccination reactions, she said.

Experts had also warned, Ley said, of high costs if rabies gets to Hawai'i, with a single rabid dog able to generate more than $200,000 in costs for human and animal treatment and health and animal control programs.

The new policy also requires advance tick-control treatment.