Stronger penalties are now in place for anyone
\nwho harms wildlife native
\nto Hawaii under a new law, just weeks after a hawk was discovered maimed on
\nHawaii island and had to
\nbe euthanized.<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Green on
\nMay 27 signed Senate Bill 849 into law as Act 98.<\/p>\n
It was designed to increase protections for indigenous species, including aquatic life, wildlife and land plants, and to support ecological balance and honor native culture.<\/p>\n
The law calls for fines up to $20,000 and potential jail time, depending on the severity of each offence.<\/p>\n
At the start of the last
\nlegislative session, the Senate decided to prioritize
\nbiosecurity<\/p>\n
Sen. Dru Mamo Kanuha (D, Kona-Kau-Volcano) introduced SB 849 calling it \u201ca key part of that effort\u201d in
\nan email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss out on what’s happening!<\/strong><\/p>\n Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It’s FREE!<\/p>\n \u2018<\/strong>Io \u2014 a hawk native to \u201cWe recognized that existing laws did not go far enough to deter harm to our indigenous species\u2014particularly the \u2018<\/strong>io,\u201d Kanuha wrote.<\/p>\n Previously, all violations against the native species were treated as Under the new law, repeat offenses carry a Class C felony charge.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a critical step forward in holding bad actors accountable and deterring future harm,\u201d Kanuha wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cOur \u2018<\/strong>io \u2014 the Hawaiian hawk \u2014 are keystone species in the forests across \u201cWhen reports surfaced of a dangerously emaciated \u2018<\/strong>io in my own community, the urgency of this issue became deeply personal,\u201d Kanuha wrote, referring to the hawk found in Mountain View.<\/p>\n The hawk was discovered on May 8 when a homeowner checked her chicken coop, only to find three chickens dead and the malnourished hawk, who had apparently broken in.<\/p>\n The hawk was missing a large chunk from the top of its beak, which still enabled the hawk to kill the chickens, but not eat them.<\/p>\n The homeowner called the Hawai\u2018i Wildlife Center, which referred the case to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n Raymond McGuire, a wildlife biologist with the DLNR, suspected foul play, as the raw edge of the hawk\u2019s beak-break appeared unnatural.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were pretty confident (that it was human-\u00adinflicted) based on how far back the break was and how vertical the slice was, it wasn\u2019t a jagged break,\u201d McGuire said over the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had many cases where people have harmed these hawks, so that was kind of on our radar Beak cuts on birds of prey are often inflicted to deter attacks on livestock or people, especially when kept as pets.<\/p>\n McGuire said that someone may have intended to disarm the Mountain View hawk by damaging its beak in order to keep it or market it as a pet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got a report that somebody was trying to give a hawk away on Craigslist,\u201d he said, explaining that the injured hawk in Mountain View was found just \u201ca few days later.\u201d<\/p>\n Rylen Navarro, a student at Mililani High School, wrote in support of SB 849.<\/p>\n \u201cI strongly believe that increasing the severity of penalties for killing or endangering these indigenous species is the most effective way to sustain the Bree Kochi, another student at Mililani, also submitted testimony in support of stronger protections.<\/p>\n \u201cIndigenous wildlife holds rich historical significance,\u201d Kochi wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout these species, we would lose our cultural identity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stronger penalties are now in place for anyone who harms wildlife native to Hawaii under a new law,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4582,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-3504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-editors","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114723709840807637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHawaii, only found on
\nHawaii island \u2014 are an apex predator that promote balance within the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\nmisdemeanors.<\/p>\n
\nHawaii, and especially within my Senate District on Hawai\u2018i Island,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\nalready.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwildlife of our state and
\nto preserve the diversity
\nof the islands,\u201d Navarro wrote.<\/p>\n