Hawaii Clings to 88-Year-Old Animal Quarantine Program

HONOLULU —  Sara Lempa doesn’t understand why her 10-year-old golden retriever, Maizey, is caged for four months at Hawaii’s state-run animal quarantine.

In the 88 years since the facility was established to keep the islands rabies-free, Hawaii has never detected a case of rabies.

“It appears to me they’d rather not have animals come in,” Lempa said as she and her son, Chris, sat inside the cage with Maizey, who was in the fifth day of her 120-day stay.

The Lempas moved from San Diego after Kevin Lempa was hired as defensive coordinator for the University of Hawaii football team.

“He took the job before we knew about the quarantine,” Sara Lempa said.

Hawaii law requires dogs and cats to be quarantined upon arrival for either 30 or 120 days. To qualify for a 30-day stay, pet owners must show that their animals have twice been vaccinated against rabies--with the last shot coming at least 90 days but not longer than one year before the pet arrives.

Animals must also be implanted with a microchip to ensure proper identification.

Upon arrival, the pets must undergo a third blood test to detect rabies.

“We didn’t do everything we were supposed to. It’s very confusing, the timeline,” Lempa said. “I feel like the law should be more uniform.

“We’ve moved a lot of times, but this is the most amount of red tape we’ve encountered.”

Despite the absence of rabies here, quarantine director Dr. James Foppoli said the state can’t risk the exposure that would pose a potential public health threat and cause serious environmental damage.

“You don’t have to catch cases to justify the quarantine,” which started in 1912 after reports of a rabies outbreak in California, Foppoli said.

“Just to say we haven’t seen any rabies cases and do away with quarantine is to seriously underestimate the threat.”

Foppoli said no rabies cases have been detected because pets brought to quarantine generally receive better care.

People with strays or farm animals, both of which are more likely to have rabies, tend not to bring them, he said. Another reason is that not enough animals pass through quarantine.

“You need a large number ofanimals before you will see a case,” Foppoli said. “It’s kind of like a lottery, where a person keeps on buying tickets to increase their chances of winning.

“The more animals come in, the more likely you’ll see a rabies case.”

A study published in August in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. found rabies cases in the United States declined from more than 100 a year in the early 1900s to a total of 32 cases between 1980 and 1996.

Rabies can cause death within a week of infection, most probably through cardiac or respiratory failure, according to the National Institutes of Health.

For decades, all incoming dogs and cats were quarantined 120 days. The state began permitting 30-day stays in September 1997.

Since then, the number of quarantined pets has increased, with the number exceeding 4,000 every year since the shorter stays were allowed.

For the year ended June 30, 4,048 pets were placed in quarantine, compared with 3,380 in 1997 and 2,215 in 1983. A 30-day stay costs $655, while a 120-day stay costs $1,055.

Pending federal legislation would provide a partial rebate for military families, who account for much of the quarantine’s business. The quarantine costs $2.7 million to operate annually and brings in slightly more money than that, Foppoli said.

Pets are kept in cages 6 feet wide, 7 feet high and either 14 feet or 25 feet long, with the longer cages for bigger dogs. The animals are cared for by 46 state workers--more during the peak summer months--including two veterinarians and two veterinarian technicians. If a pet has a medical problem requiring more than superficial attention, it is taken to an outside animal hospital at the owner’s expense.

Since 1988, about seven of every 1,000 cats and dogs brought to quarantine have died while in confinement, Foppoli said. Based on last year’s numbers, that comes out to 28 animals.

Visitation at the barracks-like facility west of Pearl Harbor is allowed five afternoons a week. People who agree to clean their pet’s cage and groom their animal can visit every morning.

The only exceptions made for quarantine are for service animals, such as guide and seizure response dogs, or for animals coming from three rabies-free islands: Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

For the Lempas, quarantine time can’t pass quickly enough.

“We’re not exactly pleased with this idea,” Sara Lempa said. “We thought about whether we would bring her, but we wanted her with us no matter what.”

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On the Internet:

Hawaii quarantine site: https://www.hawaiiag.org/hdoa/ai_aqs.htm

National Institutes of Health: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/rabies.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

https://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies