INITIAL COMMENTS ON KAUA'I BIRD MORTALITY EVENT (April 2026, reported by ARC)

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I’ve been digging into the recent reports of dead seabirds on Kauaʻi, and I think a couple things are important to say. 

First—this is genuinely sad. Seeing that many birds killed is not something anyone wants, and it deserves attention.

But at the same time, we need to be careful about how we interpret and communicate what happened.

Right now, it’s being presented very definitively that cats caused all of these deaths. That may very well be likely—but from a scientific standpoint, it’s not something that can be stated with 100% certainty without direct (visual / video) observation or more detailed examination.

In wildlife work, multiple predators and scavengers can interact with the same animals, and visual (in person / video) confirmation is really the only way to be fully definitive.

So I think it’s fair to say cats are a strong possibility—but it shouldn’t be presented as absolute fact without that level of evidence!.

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Where I think the conversation really needs to go is beyond this one event.
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Because even if cats were involved, the bigger question is:
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Why are cats there in the first place, and how do we prevent that from happening again?
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That’s where a lot of the current discussion falls short.
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And no, not feeding the cats simply increases bird predation which we all do not want to happen.
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Most outdoor cats don’t just appear—they come from people:
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  • unfixed pet cats
  • abandonment
  • lack of management
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And we actually know quite a bit from science and real-world experience about what works:
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  • Unmanaged cats roam, breed, and cause problems
  • Managed cats (fixed and fed) stay in smaller areas and don’t reproduce
  • And if you don’t stop new cats from entering the system, nothing else works
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That’s why I keep coming back to what’s called the Coexistence Framework.
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It’s pretty simple concept based on applying different approaches for cats in different settings:
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  • Pet cats → fix them and keep them from roaming
  • Community cats → manage them properly (TNR + adoption + feeding + monitoring)
  • Sensitive wildlife areas → keep predators out / feral cats to be removed
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When you “lock down” the system like this, you stop the flow of new cats, stabilize the ones that are already there, and prevent movement into places where they shouldn’t be.
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That’s how you actually reduce both cat populations and wildlife impacts over time.
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I think we all want the same outcome here—fewer dead birds and fewer cats struggling outside.
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The way to get there isn’t reacting to a single event.  It’s fixing the system that leads to events like this in the first place.
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Mahalo nui loa for your consideration.
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Greg Pu'uwai Aloha Baker, Founder
Hawaii Animal Advocacy
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PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING POSTINGS THAT INVESTIGATES THIS IN-DEPTH; 
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1.  168 native seabirds killed on Kauaʻi.  This is tragic — and it’s a wake-up call.
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2.  TRUTH SHEET: Kauaʻi Seabird Mortality Event — Science, Context, and Solutions
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3.  TRUTH SHEET: Cat vs. Dog Hunting Behavior — Scientific Context for Large Wildlife Mortality Events
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DOCUMENT INFOGRAPHICS 

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