Animal Search & Rescue • Disaster Response • Emergency Preparedness • Pet & Livestock Support • Community Resilience
Protecting the Whole ʻOhana — People and Animals Together
When disaster strikes, caring for our communities also means caring for the animals who are part of our ʻohana.
Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance — known as HAKA — exists for exactly these moments.
Born from grassroots action during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption, HAKA has grown into a Hawaiʻi Island nonprofit dedicated to helping communities and animals prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and emergencies.
Following Lala, that kuleana once again became action.
As families across Hawaiʻi Island reported urgent needs involving pets and animals, HAKA stepped forward as a specialized response partner — accepting 448 pet-related referrals through the coordinated community response.
Their work is an important reminder that emergency preparedness isn’t complete unless the whole ʻohana is considered.
For Support Local Hawaii, Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance represents Emergency Stewardship in its purest form: seeing a need, accepting responsibility and showing up prepared to serve.
448 Pet-Related Referrals Following Lala
Emergencies create challenges for animals as well as people.
Families may suddenly need pet food.
Livestock may need feed or water.
Animals can become displaced.
Veterinary needs can emerge.
Transportation and evacuation become more complicated when pets or livestock are involved.
And families already navigating an emergency can face an impossible question:
How do I keep the animals I love safe, too?
Following Lala, Hawaiʻi Island households submitted hundreds of requests involving pets and animals.
Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance accepted 448 pet-related referrals, helping connect those needs with specialized animal assistance and resources.
Vibrant Hawaiʻi supported HAKA’s response in part with a $10,000 grant.
The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation also awarded HAKA $50,000 following Lala to provide emergency animal assistance and essential resources for pets, livestock and the communities caring for them.
This is specialized disaster response with an enormous human impact.
Because helping an animal often means helping an entire ʻohana.
Born From Disaster. Built for Resilience.
HAKA’s story began during one of Hawaiʻi Island’s defining modern disasters.
During the 2018 Kīlauea eruption, lava threatened homes, communities and animals across Puna.
What began as a grassroots Facebook network connecting people who could help animals in danger quickly grew into an organized community response.
Volunteers coordinated rescues.
Animals received care.
People shared information and resources.
By the end of the eruption, the volunteer-led effort had helped rescue, care for and coordinate support for more than 1,000 animals.
The experience revealed something important:
Hawaiʻi needed organized, community-based disaster response that included animals alongside the people who love and care for them.
That grassroots effort ultimately became Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance.
In 2021, HAKA became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to continuing that kuleana.
Pūlama i nā mea ola mai uka a i kai
Protecting all creatures from mauka to makai.
HAKA approaches disaster preparedness and response with an understanding that animals and people cannot always be separated into different emergency plans.
For many Hawaiʻi families, animals are family.
For farmers and ranchers, animals can also represent livelihoods.
For communities, animal welfare can become an important part of evacuation, sheltering, recovery and public safety.
HAKA helps bridge that gap.
Its work includes animal search and rescue coordination, emergency preparedness, resource connection, education, community outreach and direct assistance before, during and after emergencies.
Preparing Before Disaster Arrives
Some of the most valuable emergency-response work happens when skies are clear.
HAKA helps families think ahead about questions that become critically important during disasters:
How will I evacuate my animals?
What supplies should I have ready?
Where will my pets go?
How can I safely transport them?
What belongs in a pet emergency kit?
What happens if we become separated?
By helping residents prepare themselves and their animals before an emergency, HAKA strengthens the resilience of entire households.
Because when people have a plan for the animals they love, they are better prepared to make decisions when every minute matters.
Prepared animals mean better-prepared ʻohana.
Kuleana Means Showing Up
The Hawaiian word kuleana carries profound meaning.
Responsibility.
Privilege.
A relationship of care.
HAKA doesn’t simply carry the word in its name.
Its history demonstrates it through action.
The organization emerged because people saw animals in danger during the Kīlauea eruption and chose to help.
That experience became knowledge.
Knowledge became organization.
Organization became preparedness.
And when another emergency came, that preparedness became action again.
Following Lala, 448 animal-related referrals had somewhere to go.
That matters.
Caring for Animals Means Caring for People
Animal disaster response is sometimes treated as separate from humanitarian response.
In reality, the two are deeply connected.
A person may refuse to evacuate because they cannot leave a beloved animal behind.
A family recovering from a storm may struggle to replace spoiled pet food while simultaneously replacing their own groceries.
A rancher facing disrupted water infrastructure may be worrying about livestock as well as their household.
A displaced family may need temporary arrangements that accommodate their animals.
When organizations help solve those problems, they aren’t only protecting animals.
They are helping people navigate disaster without abandoning members of their ʻohana.
That is why HAKA’s work belongs within Hawaiʻi’s larger emergency-response ecosystem.
From Hawaiʻi Island to Maui
HAKA’s kuleana has extended beyond its home island.
Following the devastating Maui wildfires, HAKA teams supported animal search, rescue and recovery efforts on Maui.
Their work included searching for animals, safely capturing and transporting animals for veterinary and shelter care, helping distribute food and supplies, and coordinating with other animal-welfare and recovery organizations.
The knowledge developed through Hawaiʻi Island emergencies became a resource for another island experiencing unimaginable loss.
It is another example of what stewardship means across Hawaiʻi:
When one island needs help, another island answers.
Why Support Local Hawaii Recognizes HAKA
Support Local Hawaii recognizes organizations that don’t simply talk about community resilience.
They build it.
Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance has been doing that since its earliest days as a grassroots response during the Kīlauea eruption.
HAKA recognized a gap in Hawaiʻi’s emergency-response system and helped build capacity to fill it.
They prepare communities before emergencies.
They respond when animals and families are in crisis.
They coordinate specialized resources.
They educate residents.
They mobilize volunteers.
And when disaster arrives, they understand that protecting Hawaiʻi’s communities means protecting the whole ʻohana — people and animals together.
For its extraordinary commitment to animal welfare, emergency preparedness and disaster response — including accepting 448 pet-related referrals following Lala — Support Local Hawaii is honored to recognize Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance as a Diamond Emergency Steward.
Emergency Stewardship Impact
Lala Response & Recovery
448 pet-related referrals accepted following Lala
$10,000 in support from Vibrant Hawaiʻi toward the response
$50,000 awarded by Hawaiʻi Community Foundation to support emergency assistance and essential resources for pets, livestock and the communities caring for them following Lala
A Legacy of Disaster Response
2018 Kīlauea Eruption — HAKA’s grassroots origins
1,000+ animals rescued, cared for or connected with support through the volunteer-led Kīlauea eruption response
2021 — Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Maui Wildfires — HAKA teams deployed to support animal search, rescue and recovery
Lala — HAKA once again activated to help Hawaiʻi Island’s animals and the people who care for them
How You Can Support HAKA
Emergency-response organizations need support before the next emergency — not only after it arrives.
Community members can support HAKA by:
Donating to help fund animal rescue operations, emergency supplies and the equipment needed for response.
Volunteering to support ongoing organizational and community work.
Joining an emergency-response team for those prepared to make the additional training and field commitment.
Fostering animals that may need temporary homes and care.
Learning and preparing so your own pets and animals are included in your household emergency plan.
Every prepared household strengthens Hawaiʻi’s collective resilience.
Kuleana in Action
HAKA’s story began with people who saw animals in danger and decided:
We have a responsibility to help.
Years later, that decision continues to ripple outward through Hawaiʻi.
From Kīlauea to Maui.
From everyday preparedness to Lala.
From pets sleeping beside us to livestock sustaining local families.
The animals may be different.
The emergencies may be different.
But the kuleana remains.
Prepare before the emergency.
Protect the whole ʻohana.
Respond with compassion.
Serve where you are needed.
Mahalo nui loa to Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance, its volunteers, community partners, donors and every person helping ensure Hawaiʻi’s animals are never forgotten when disaster strikes.
Pūlama i nā mea ola mai uka a i kai.
This is compassion in action.
This is kuleana in action.
This is Emergency Stewardship.
Connect With Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance
Organization: Hawaiʻi Animal Kuleana Alliance (HAKA)
Organization Type: 501(c)(3) Nonprofit
Service Area: Hawaiʻi Island, with disaster-response service extending where needed
Stewardship Areas: Animal Welfare • Animal Search & Rescue • Emergency Preparedness • Disaster Response • Pet & Livestock Support • Community Resilience
Emergency Response: Lala Response & Recovery
Support Local Hawaii Recognition: ♦ Diamond Emergency Steward
Support HAKA’s work protecting Hawaiʻi’s animals and the people who love them — before, during and after disaster.
