Days after a man was charged with felony livestock theft for killing a pet pig on O‘ahu, the owners of a Kaua‘i animal killed by trespassers in August are questioning what will happen to those who allegedly committed a similar
Days after a man was charged with felony livestock theft for killing a pet pig on O‘ahu, the owners of a Kaua‘i animal killed by trespassers in August are questioning what will happen to those who allegedly committed a similar crime here.
“Kipu” the pig was a “beloved” Kaua‘i pet for more than 14 years, but was slaughtered Aug. 5 while he was resting in the sun on his owner’s property in Kilauea, his caretaker said.
The case mirrors a more recent one, in which a Honolulu man allegedly killed “Porky,” a pet famous for his Island Air commercial.
The man accused of killing him, Joseph Calarruda V, is charged with felony livestock theft, a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Police were able to charge Porky’s alleged killer with a felony because the pig made an income, something that valued him within the felony range.
Animal cruelty itself is not a felony in Hawai‘i. There are 42 states that have felony penalties for certain acts of animal cruelty, according to the Humane Society of the United States.
But something more needs to be done to protect local pets, said Kipu’s most recent owner, Earl Simpson.
Kipu’s day in the sun came to an abrupt halt when two men allegedly shot him twice on Simpson’s property. Simpson heard the second shot and then ran out of his home to see what the two men were doing within 30 feet of his home, he said.
“Two men were standing there above him like they were about to gut him,” Simpson said. “… I grabbed and struggled with one of them and dislocated my shoulder.”
Because of Simpson’s injury, he had to fly to O‘ahu for surgery. When he returned in mid-October, Kipu was dead after struggling to stay alive for several months.
“I thought the worst part of this whole thing was going to be my shoulder, that Kipu was going to make it,” Simpson said.
“We were putting his antibiotics in Twinkies. But then he stopped eating.”
Even harder to take was knowing he would have to give the news to Kipu’s former owner, Wendy Rausch, who was mother to Kipu for more than 14 years.
Rausch had hand-picked Simpson to care for Kipu after she had to move in June 2004, to a residence that wasn’t suitable for a 300-plus pound pet.
The two 19-year-olds Simpson accuses of trespassing on his property and killing his pet were charged with cruelty to animals, trespassing with a firearm and discharging a firearm near a public road, Simpson said.
Simpson was going to drop the charges and had been considering mediating with the two men, he said, until he was shown what he cited as an unforgivable lack of respect.
“I had called the father of one of them and asked if they could help me bury Kipu, because I couldn’t because of my shoulder,” Simpson said.
“They came, but they just sprinkled dirt and grass on him and that was it. I was thinking it would be a good opportunity for the father to teach the lesson of, ‘Hey, you did this, take some responsibility.’ But instead, the lesson was, ‘The hell with this haole, let’s get out of here.’ ”
Rausch hopes the Kipu case in conjunction with the O‘ahu case will shed some much-needed light on animal rights in Hawai‘i, she said.
“If any animal will be better protected in the future, that will be better for everyone,” she said.
The father of one of the 19-year-olds who allegedly killed Kipu did not want to comment and police officials were unavailable yesterday to confirm whether or not charges will be filed.
