Maui Humane Society program helps dogs shine, creating a national model for success

At the Maui Humane Society, it's Ualani's lucky day. She's a large, sweet-tempered dog who was abandoned at a Taco Bell.

Now, she's getting out of the shelter for the afternoon. Volunteer Makena Sullivan has clocked out of her day job and finds Ualani at the end of the kennel line.

Together, they’re going on an adventure through the Kama’āina Beach Buddies program.

“My absolute favorite part about it is the first time you go up to their kennel and pick up their harness and their leash, and they act like it's the best day of their lives,” Sullivan says.

She signs Ualani out of the shelter's system, grabs her harness, and “adopt me” leash.

Whenever Sullivan and her friend Ashley Martinez head to the beach on weekends or grab dinner at a dog-friendly restaurant, they usually stop first at the shelter to bring a dog along.

“Just seeing how much of a difference it makes for them — I've seen them in their kennels going crazy, so to get to see them out here acting like completely normal dogs is a game changer,” she says.

“C’mon, sweet girl!” Sullivan calls, and Ualani trots beside her and Martinez as the gate closes behind them.

Maui Humane Society's Victoria Ivankic says the shelter takes in almost 5,000 animals a year.

“We are the only open-intake shelter on the island. So that is a responsibility that we take very seriously, and it's also tough,” she says. “We're pretty much the last resort for animals here.”

The shelter's Kama’āina Beach Buddies and Dogs on Demand programs give dogs a chance to escape the stressful kennel environment — and help them meet potential adopters along the way. It's so popular it’s often booked out months in advance.

“We're on people's vacation to-do lists. It's a fun attraction when you come to Maui,” explains Keani Kapeliela-Bannister, dog care manager at Maui Humane Society. “So a lot of visitors sign up for our Dog on Demand program. But we do have more availability for our volunteers to participate in the program, and they are considered our Kama’āina Beach Buddy outings.”

Program's national success

Over the past 10 years, the program has grown in both success and reach. Last year, they logged more than 2,000 dog outings.

The Maui Humane Society has become a model for similar programs across the country, with staff leading workshops at about 40 different shelters nationwide.

Lexi Hughes is Maui Humane Society's enrichment manager, overseeing the well-being of the animals and creating opportunities for them to play and experience the outside world.

“The effect that it has is now in the 1000s of dogs that it is benefiting,” she says of the program's reach. “Some of the really heartwarming ones are the shelters that they're at capacity as well, and then there's also a hundred dogs out the door. So the Dog on Demand program for them is life-saving. So that is really meaningful to us, that we get to help save animals we don't even know. It's wild to think about how far it's spreading.”

Making a difference, one dog at a time

It all started about a decade ago with one dog named Dwight, Hughes says.

“We noticed that Dwight didn't connect with people in his kennel, but then when he would go on an outing, they had really good things to say about him,” she says. “So we were saying, ‘Well, what if we just let people take Dwight out?' They walk in, they say, ‘Hey, I would like to take Dwight.' So we called it ‘Dwight on Demand.' Then we were asking, like, ‘Well, why can't we extend this to other dogs that have similar needs?'”

Along with dogs, the shelter houses cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and even a resident tortoise named Freddie.

Ualani is one of about 100 dogs at the Maui Humane Society right now, pushing the facility towards max capacity.

There's also Starburst, a dog battling a condition known as “happy tail” — wagging so much against the cement kennel walls that her tail has become raw.

Two-year-old male Richie Rich was in rough shape when he arrived last year, and now Hughes says he's blossomed.

“He used to be a skinny string bean and now he's this cool, handsome dude. I could see him wearing a leather jacket kinda thing,” she says, laughing.

Kapeliela-Bannister shares about another dog that was found right after the Lahaina fires and has been in and out of the shelter since then.

“We have a dog named JT, short for Justin Timberlake. He's been with us for a while. He is a great example of how dogs don't do well, in confinement, in shelter environments,” she explains. “He greatly benefits from our dog outing program. He goes out multiple times a week. And outside of this shelter environment … he's able to be at ease. He walks great on leash. He is more present and able to make connections with people, and we really see his true self while he's out of the shelter.”

Amid Maui's housing crisis, the Maui Humane Society has seen an uptick in dogs because their owners can't find housing that allows pets. Ivankic says that accounts for about one-quarter of recent surrenders.

“We know how hard it is for people to come to us and make that choice,” she says. “They're choosing between a place to live and their best friend that they've had for 10 years. That's not right.”

She says staff work with both landlords and renters to help pay insurance for dogs or pitch in for pet deposits.

Ualani's Outing

In the shade by the beach with Sullivan and Martinez, Ualani is enjoying the one-on-one attention and the feeling of rolling in the grass.

Martinez says she used to consider herself a “cat lady.” That changed when she first went on a dog adventure with Sullivan.

“My first ‘beach buddy' was Queen Daisy,” Martinez recalled. “And she was this old little lady with three teeth and partially deaf and blind. And she was just the best. She was like, Little Miss Piggy, eating all the treats., and it was such an amazing time. I think that's when it kind of hit me, because I always had the same type of idea about the shelter, I was like, ‘I don't like to look, you know, and see the dogs, all the animals suffering.’ It's a hard thing to witness. But I think the most amazing thing was being able to truly seeing them, when you take them out of the shelter, and just seeing them as normal dogs, as if this was somebody's pet.”

Though the dogs' well-being, not adoption, is the primary goal of the Beach Buddies program, generating interest is always a plus.

“When you are out and about with them, if you have the [volunteer] shirt on, or they have the ‘adopt me’ leash on, people ask lots of questions, like, ‘How can I do that?' ‘Is she up for adoption?'” Martinez says.

Under the coconut trees, Ualani's tail is wagging. She and her shelter-mates are one day closer to their new homes — one buddy at a time.