LIHU‘E — Aluina Hokulani Kanahele, 41, of Makaweli, was sentenced Friday to 40 days in jail for violations of animal-desertion and animal-cruelty laws stemming from the alleged abuse of five dogs at this home last summer. During sentencing at the
LIHU‘E — Aluina Hokulani Kanahele, 41, of Makaweli, was sentenced Friday to 40 days in jail for violations of animal-desertion and animal-cruelty laws stemming from the alleged abuse of five dogs at this home last summer.
During sentencing at the state courthouse, Fifth District Court Judge Gerald Matsunaga also put Kanahele on one year’s probation, and required him to perform 300 hours of community service with the Kauai Humane Society, plus pay $250 in fees and forbade him from owning dogs or any other animals for a year.
Two other dogs Kanahele has recently kept at his house will be taken away from him, authorities said.
Kanahele showed no emotion when the sentence was handed down, and declined comment to The Garden Island.
Kanahele was instructed to turn himself into authorities on Friday, Feb. 6., and will serve his sentence at the Kauai Community Correctional Center in Wailua.
Matsunaga said he allowed Kanahele a week’s time to prepare for his incarceration and to try to ‘‘save his job” with Gay & Robinson Inc.
Deputy Public Defender Erick T.S. Moon asked for leniency for Kanahele, saying the defendant is the only breadwinner in his family and that his family could become homeless if he had to spend much time in jail and could not work.
Dr. Rebecca Rhoades, executive director of the Kauai Humane Society, said the case against Kanahele was a ‘‘big issue” for her organization, which worked with prosecutors in the case.
‘‘It was first neglect case that the Kauai Humane Society has ever charged in its history that I can recall,” Rhoades said.
Rhoades said Kanahele treated the five dogs with extreme cruelty. They were chained to trees and to the underside of his house, and one was locked up in a metal cage in which it slept next to its feces.
While chained, one dog suffered a deep, bloody neck gash. All the dogs were underweight, two were emaciated, and others had skin disease and had only patches of hair on their bodies, according to Kauai Humane Society investigators.
Rhoades said the condition the dogs were found in was inexcusable.
‘‘This is a simple case of lack of respect for life, and it is one of the fundamental values of our society,” Rhoades said. ‘‘We can’t tolerate someone abandoning their animals and leaving them to die from starvation.”
Of the five dogs, three were placed in homes, one was euthanized because of uncontrollable aggressiveness, and another dog was euthanized because it had severe heartworm problems and was in poor health, Rhoades said.
Kanahele was cited by a Kauai Humane Society officer last July after a visitor saw the condition of the dogs and filed a complaint with the organization, authorities said. The visitor fed the dogs when no one else apparently did, officials said.
Kanahele was originally cited for five counts of animal desertion and five counts of cruelty to animals, county Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rosa Flores said.
In a plea-bargain agreement reached with county prosecutors in November, Kanahele pleaded no contest to three counts of animal desertion and two counts of cruelty to animals, Flores said.
Flores told Matsunaga that the health of the dogs, from having been tied up and neglected for periods, diminished to the point where the dogs were covered with filth and had become slow moving, had heartworm, and had been infested by ticks.
Moon said Kanahele shouldn’t be blamed for the neglect of the dogs, as their feeding schedule was interrupted by the family moving from one house to another last year.
Moon also said Kanahele fed the dogs when he came home from work, sometimes late in the evening, and if he wasn’t able to feed the dogs, the feeding was left up to other family members.
Kanahele didn’t do anything ‘‘intentional” to hurt the dogs, Moon added.
Moon said it was his understanding the dogs had been nursed back to health and were placed in homes.
But Rhoades said Kanahele ignored numerous attempts by the Kauai Humane Society and requests by his employer, Gay & Robinson, to take better care of his dogs.
Rhodes said she would do her best to prevent a similar incident from ever happening again on Kaua‘i.
She said her humane officers have been trained by her and Kaua‘i Police Department trainers, and that her officers are authorized to cite people for cruelty to their animals.
‘‘My job is to make sure we compassionately, professionally and legally protect animals on Kaua‘i,” Rhoades said.
Staff Writer Lester Chang may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net.
