Lanai Animal Rescue Center: Hawaiian Delight - Vetstreet

When planning your Hawaiian vacation, you might want to snorkel, see volcanoes, maybe attend a luau. Oh, and if you’re stopping on the island of Lāna‘i, you’re going to want to carve out time to pet some cats.

No, really — just check Trip Advisor. Lāna‘i Animal Rescue Center (L.A.R.C.), founded in 2008, is a top-rated attraction (currently No. 2) on the small island, and it’s no fluke.

The First “Lāna‘i Lion”

Located just outside Lāna‘i City, L.A.R.C. is an open-air cat sanctuary that’s home to some 340 cats. Lāna‘i has very few predatory species — not even the mongoose you’ll find on other Hawaiian islands — and there’s no full-time veterinarian. Several years ago, the island’s feral cat population had gotten out of control. That’s when Kathy Carroll stepped in.

She and her husband, Mike (who owns an art gallery, which is the current No. 1 attraction on the island; the two attractions swap positions now and again), moved to Lāna‘i from Chicago after celebrating their 20th anniversary at one of the Four Seasons resorts on the island. (Both resorts now support L.A.R.C. with a voluntourism campaign called the Kokua Project, which encourages guests to visit the sanctuary.) Ten years ago, a woman brought Carroll, who was an animal lover but not necessarily an activist, a kitten who would change her life.

“A friend brought him to me before leaving for a flight and said she wasn’t sure what would happen if she left him. He was a little baby kitten that was a bag of desperation. We’ve all seen it — anyone in animal rescue has seen it — he was very malnourished, had an injured leg, fleas. He was just a mess,” Carroll says. The local vet wouldn’t be back for a week, and Carroll knew she needed to take action.

“I took the ferry to Maui, got a rental car and found a veterinarian,” she says. “The kitten is fine now, but he was the catalyst — he opened my eyes to the plight of homeless cats and kittens here on Lāna‘i.”

When she brought the kitten back to the vet to be neutered a month later, she began to learn more about the issue. At that time, Lāna‘i had a beloved but part-time vet, Doc Palumbo, for three hours a week, and there were no local programs for spaying and neutering strays. The Maui-based vet suggested she get in touch with the Feline Foundation of Maui, which could lend her traps and teach her how to start a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program on Lāna‘i.

Going Beyond TNR

Although the TNR program was a solid start, the stray cats of Lāna‘i ran into another issue: A wildlife biologist discovered an endangered native bird on the island.

“We couldn’t in good conscience release these cats back into the wild knowing the birds were there, so we ended up creating very temporary shelter in an old horse-training corral,” Carroll says. In two days for just $200, they covered it with deer netting and added a door to house the 22 cats who had a colony near a nest of the birds. But she knew she needed a more permanent solution, and that’s when the idea of an outdoor sanctuary began to evolve.

A First-of-its-kind Sanctuary

Carroll didn’t go about creating a shelter lightly. She did plenty of reading, and although she initially envisioned a traditional brick-and-mortar type of shelter with air conditioning and flooring, she realized that their tropical location made it possible to think truly outside the box. “All of a sudden, we said, ‘Wait! These are feral cats who live outside!’ I started thinking about African big cat preserves and thought, What if we found a piece of property and let them live outdoors in a cage-free setting?”

With some fence posts, PVC pipes and deer netting, a team of L.A.R.C. volunteers built a 10,000-square-foot (which has since expanded to 15,000 square feet) outdoor sanctuary with feeding areas, climbing structures, areas for hiding and sleeping, and more for about $10,000. The unique design (as well as smart planning when introducing new cats) creates a low-stress environment for the cats, resulting in little to no fighting or aggressive behavior, and the incidence of respiratory illness (often attributed to stress and overcrowding in shelter situations) tends to be very low.

The location also provides one other important feature: ingredients for an amazing — and free — cat litter. Lāna‘i has an abundance of red dirt and pine trees, and Carroll has found that pulverized pine needles mixed with that dirt create a remarkably effective cat litter.

A veterinarian visits the sanctuary once a month, and every cat is examined, dewormed, vaccinated, microchipped and tested for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The cats are also treated for fleas on intake, as well as monthly when possible, and the environment is treated to prevent flea infestations.

Carroll now heads a small paid staff of animal care technicians, administrators and an executive director, but she also relies on volunteers to keep the kitties purring. That includes locals who come out regularly, those who occasionally attend monthly volunteering parties (everyone pitches in with painting, mowing, raking, etc.) and, of course, tourists, who Carroll is quick to point out are an important part of her volunteer team.

Not a Typical Volunteer

“Job 1 is getting in there to socialize the cats,” she says, and more than 900 people visit the sanctuary each year to do just that. While most leave with only memories (or perhaps a sponsorship with the Adopt in Place program), occasionally a match is made and an adoption takes place, as was the case for Anne-Marie Maguire of Boston.

Maguire and her husband visited Lāna‘i for the first time last year and, as cat lovers with two rescued Siamese brothers at home, knew they had to visit L.A.R.C.

“It’s such an extraordinary place; you can’t imagine until you’ve been there. You walk in and you’re greeted by 50 cats just waiting to be loved, and they follow you around like the Pied Piper,” she says. “It’s like the Four Seasons for cats: plenty of room to play … they’re all in excellent health, very relaxed. And it didn’t smell!”

Despite having no intention of adopting, Maguire fell in love with Louis of Lāna‘i. She and her husband didn’t take the cat when they left, but Maguire couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“I wrote to Kathy and asked if he was still available, and he was. I really didn’t have the vacation time available to go back out to Lāna‘i, but I didn’t want to ship him in cargo. So I used my points and miles to fly out [an employee] from L.A.R.C.,” Maguire says. “I also got them a Delta lounge pass so Louie could get out and stretch his legs during their layover in Atlanta,” she says.

“Most people come home with a T-shirt or something from their vacation or honeymoon,” Maguire says. “I came home with a cat!” But her involvement didn’t end there.

A Special Delivery

Maguire had booked a trip to Maui in May of this year and planned to make a trip over to Lāna‘i to visit L.A.R.C. She spoke to Carroll ahead of time and learned that a couple in Montreal had recently fallen in love with a cat named Guapo, but because of their travel plans, they couldn’t take him with them. Once they got home, the logistics of shipping him safely made adoption seem nearly impossible. Happily, Maguire stepped in with a plan.

“I had a first-class ticket booked to come home, but I told Kathy, ‘If they’re interested in adopting him, I can change my first-class ticket on United [which has no under-seat space for a carrier] to a coach ticket on Alaska Airlines, and I’ll bring him home with me,’” Maguire says. She did just that, later driving from Boston to meet the couple and deliver their precious new cargo.

Making a Difference Beyond Lāna‘i

L.A.R.C. doesn’t place as many cats in homes as some large rescues, partly because Lāna‘i has a limited number of homes available for cats, but also because all of the cats were feral to begin with, and while many acclimate to human contact with ease, others prefer to keep their distance. However, Carroll feels strongly about making a difference in cats’ lives beyond her own “Lāna‘i Lions.”

“Now we’re having other rescue groups looking at what we’ve done, and they’re saying, ‘Wow, I could do this!’” Carroll says. She’s also creating a presentation to show what they’ve done, which she hopes will inspire others to take a leap of faith when it comes to helping animals.

“My favorite quote is the Lily Tomlin quote: ‘I said, "Somebody should do something about that." Then I realized I am somebody,’” Carroll says. “Doing something is always better than doing nothing, cat by cat and kitten by kitten.”

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