Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch, said Friday he had decided to look into the issue on his own because of the number of dog meat accusations that have resurfaced over the years

"I've been here 15 years, and I kept hearing people say, 'They're eating dogs, they're eating dogs,' " said Cox, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife enforcement officer.

Cox said he met with a woman July 13 who said she knew a man who had complained about the number of dogs being killed at a neighbor's home toward the back of Lualualei Valley.

Two weeks later, Cox said, he walked up to the home on Pu'uhulu Road, asked for the man whose name he had gotten and began chatting him up about buying and selling dog meat.

Cox said he told the man he used to buy dog meat from a man named "Armando" in Waimanalo who had moved to Las Vegas, and that he needed a new source.

He told the man that he sold dog meat to others, and that if the man could not furnish him with dog meat, he would leave and not say anything about the conversation, Cox said.

That appeared to win over the man's confidence, Cox said, because he volunteered that he sold a lot of dog meat to restaurant and bar owners.

The man offering the dog meat said he bought dogs for $40 to $50 and sold the slaughtered dogs — as many as 30 a month — for $150, Cox said.

He eventually agreed to buy a chocolate-colored part-Labrador from the man for $100 under the pretense that Cox would slaughter the dog himself.

Cox said he was allowed to take pictures and videotape the man's dog-holding pens by telling the man his "customers" wanted to make sure the meat they were buying was from healthy dogs being raised in a clean environment.

He brought the Labrador, which he has named Koko, with him to a press conference at Thomas Square on Friday.

Cox said he plans to work with state legislators to pass a law that would make it illegal for people to kill and eat domesticated dogs in Hawai'i.