Posted on: Friday, March 4, 2005

Officials remove animal-shelter foundation from state property

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

WAIMANALO — After months of delay and several extensions, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has forced the Sylvester Foundation off 20 acres the organization leased for its no-kill animal shelter.

The lease on the property had expired Aug. 9, but the agency had given the group until Dec. 17 to vacate the property and find a new home for its 300 animals, according to DLNR. Subsequent requests to stay were granted for Jan. 7, Jan. 22 and Feb. 28, DLNR said.

Eventually the agency sent a Notice to Vacate, stating that "any and all persons remaining on the property after 6:30 a.m. March 1 shall be subject to arrest and prosecution for trespassing and subject to a fine of up to $500 a day," said Deborah Ward, DLNR spokeswoman.

Candy Lake, foundation operator, said about 30 DLNR personnel, police and others descended on the Waimanalo property yesterday at about 9:30 a.m. demanding that she get off the land in 10 minutes.

"They wouldn't let me go back and get my cats," Lake said. "And they dumped my mongoose because I didn't have my permit in hand."

Lake said she was able to remove all the dogs but about 25 cats remained. Although she was not allowed on the property, she was able to send a friend in to try to capture the cats, she said, adding that the Hawaiian Humane Society also offered to return to the property to trap cats.

Lake said that she had agreed several times to move and she was making progress, but a series of problems plagued her: a promised new home for some of the animals and herself fell through; a contractor failed to show up after being paid; and rain delayed repairs to a Quonset hut she planned to use for indoor cats.

Nine dogs were placed in kennels, chickens were moved to another ranch and the cats will stay at a ranch in Waimanalo, she said.

The DLNR had worked with the foundation to find it a new home and offered it an 11.9-acre parcel next to Weinberg Village in Waimanalo, but the foundation had determined that the property was unsuitable and too expensive to develop.

"The whole point is they're saying we took too long; we've had enough time, but so what," Lake said. "Who was it going to hurt to let us finish? All we're trying to do is help the animals."

DLNR Director Peter Young said the state has an obligation to turn over the property to the new tenant. "The new tenant has been waiting for six months to get onto the land to begin productive use of it and start to pay rent," he said.

The process to release the land began in August 2003 when the Board of Land and Natural Resources voted to allow public auction for a new lease term, Young said.

"Ms. Lake has known for a year and a half that she would need to leave the property," he said. "We have been extremely patient in cooperating with her. We have granted her multiple requests for time extensions and even assisted in locating an alternative property."

The DLNR had leased the former foundation land to Landscape Hawai'i in an auction last June for $36,500 a month.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.