03/16/2026
Here’s some points you can use to help us oppose this bill.
I respectfully oppose HB1736. While addressing Hawaiʻi’s stray cat population is an important goal, this bill unfairly targets responsible and ethical breeders who are not contributing to the issue of feral or stray cats in our state. Ethical breeders invest significant time, care, and financial resources—often spending $5,000 or more to import cats from reputable international catteries—in order to maintain genetic diversity, preserve pedigreed bloodlines, and improve the health of their breeds. These cats are carefully managed, health tested, and placed under strict contracts that typically require spay and neuter for pet homes. Responsible breeders operate with oversight and accountability and are not the source of Hawaiʻi’s stray cat problem.
Restricting the ability to import intact cats and imposing mandatory sterilization requirements will not solve the stray cat issue. Instead, it will make it nearly impossible for ethical breeders to introduce new bloodlines and responsibly maintain pedigreed cat lines in Hawaiʻi. This type of legislation risks pushing breeding underground and encouraging unregulated backyard breeding, which lacks the health testing, oversight, and ethical standards responsible breeders follow. Efforts to reduce stray populations should instead focus on trap-neuter-return programs, accessible spay and neuter services, and responsible pet ownership education rather than penalizing the small community of ethical breeders who are actively working to preserve healthy pedigreed animals.
