Many organizations in Hawaii have shifted their missions dramatically since they were founded. The YMCA, for instance, thought Hawaii was too hot for serious exercise until its third decade.
Palama Settlement was a chapel of Kaumakapili church until the Chinatown fire of 1900, when it became a refuge for the newly homeless and a social service agency.
The first Hawaii library was for working men only. Women and children were not allowed when it opened. The Hawaiian Humane Society, the subject of this week’s column, did take care of women and children when it was founded in 1883, in addition to its main focus, working animals (horses, water buffalos and mules) and cattle.
King David Kalakaua was a founding member of the society and donated one of his homes on the palace grounds to serve as its first office, says Hawaiian Humane Society President Pamela Burns.
Burns says that by 1897 news of Hawaii’s Society spread across the country, and other communities were inspired to take similar actions.
In researching this article, I found several interesting things I didn’t know before.
Polynesians brought dogs, or ilio, with them to Hawaii, along with pigs and chickens.
The term "poi dog" is somewhat controversial. In the Hawaiian Humane Society’s book, "Poi Dogs and Popoki," they say, "Many 19th century Western accounts stated these dogs were regularly fed sweet potato poi or taro poi to fatten them. So was born the term ‘poi dog.’"
In ancient times, however, many say poi was sacred and would not have been fed to dogs. If the term was coined after the kapu system was overthrown in 1819, both those things can be true.
"Westerners brought dogs with them, which interbred with the Hawaiian ilio," Burns says. "The expression ‘poi dog’ came to mean one of unrecognizable breed."
Capt. Cook carried cats with him on his voyages. He recounted in his journal that a favorite cat had fallen overboard but was rescued by a native canoe in 1778.
The word popoki — Hawaiian for cat — appeared in the early 1800s when Englishman Archibald Campbell put it on a list of 400 Hawaiian words.
Missionaries brought cats with them. Stroking their backs, they would say, "Poor pussy." Hawaiians heard that as "popoki."
Our monarchs were fond of pets. Queen Kaahumanu, a wife of Kamehameha the Great, had a large, black pet hog that, on at least one occasion, she took with her to Kawaiaha‘o Church.
The congregation was alarmed and some hurried out, but she soothed the pet to sleep with a gentle petting of his back. The congregation returned and the minister finished his sermon.
Kamehameha III had a pet mastiff, Evelaina, said the Pacific Commercial Advertiser in 1857. When the king died, the dog remained at his grave, leaving only to eat, for two years.
Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma had a small white dog, and Queen Liliuokalani had a pet tortoise that was well known in the kingdom.
Kamehameha V had a pet parrot named Pahua who chattered in Hawaiian on a perch at Iolani Palace.
Mynah birds were brought from Australia around 1880, Harry Frank states in the Hawaiian Humane Society book. They are the "clowns of the feathered kingdom," he believed.
Chinese merchants brought the first goldfish to the islands, and they eventually made their way to the West Coast. Soon every respectable parlor in the islands had a bowl of them.
I thought St. Francis Healthcare System was unique, in that it was headed by eight women and one man in its 131-year history. The Hawaiian Humane Society has similarly been headed by seven women and one man, and both organizations date to the same year: 1883.
Before he was a police officer, Chang Apana, who inspired Earl Derr Biggers to create the fictional detective Charlie Chan, was the first paid officer for the Humane Society, in 1900.
By the mid-1880s, a group believed animals were being overworked, underfed, neglected or abused, and formed the first organization in Hawaii to fight it. By 1897, Helen Kinau Wilder was made a marshall and entrusted with the authority to investigate and arrest people for animal cruelty.
Wilder was not intimidated by any man. When she went to a church and found the minister had tied his horse outside by its tongue, she marched inside and denounced him before the entire congregation.
On another occasion she stopped Gov. Sanford Dole and his wife, Anna, on the street because their horse had a large sore under its collar. They were furious, but a few years later Anna Dole became president of the society.
Ten years later Lucy Ward, one of Victoria Ward’s seven daughters, became Honolulu’s most visible champion of animal welfare. She carried a badge, bullwhip and pistol, and made her rounds on horseback and later in a Model T Ford.
In 1914 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote about how Ward came upon a 3-year-old girl whose mother forced liquor upon her nightly. The girl was placed in a shelter.
In the same month, Ward had rescued nine children from abuse, placing them in private homes or the Salvation Army home.
When she wanted to retire in 1925, Honolulu’s mayor brought a petition to the society’s board with 500 signatures asking her to stay.
That same year, the society opened its first animal shelter, in Kakaako, on Pohukaina and Koula streets on land donated by the Ward family. It moved to its current site in Moiliili in 1942.
In 1935 the work the society did with children was spun off into a separate organization, now called Child & Family Service.
Education played a large role in changing the way Hawaii treated its animals. One of the keys to the Be Kind to Animals campaign was Freckles the dog, who visited schools from 1946 to the 1980s. Thousands of kids a year sent mail addressed to Freckles.
Actually it was seven generations of tan-and-white cocker spaniels. Freckles II performed for 15 years and educated over 300,000 kids.
Today the Humane Society has educated and convinced the public that animal cruelty is wrong, and violations of that are rare. The society maintains a shelter in Moiliili, and its work continues throughout the community.
On Thursday the Humane Society celebrates its 131st anniversary. It has certainly made Hawaii a better place, since its founding in 1883.
Bob Sigall, author of the "Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
