Hawai'i County has no separate hoarding ordinance; the matter is handled under state cruelty law. Depriving pet animals of necessary sustenance is cruelty in the second degree (HRS 711-1109), a misdemeanor that becomes a class C felony when ten or more pet animals are involved.
There is no numeric pet limit on the Big Island, so hoarding is addressed through Hawaii's animal-cruelty statute rather than a County ordinance. Under HRS 711-1109, a person commits cruelty to animals in the second degree by intentionally, knowingly or recklessly starving an animal or depriving a pet animal of necessary sustenance, meaning care sufficient to preserve its health and well-being. The offense is a misdemeanor, but when it involves ten or more pet animals in a single instance it is elevated to a class C felony. (Hawaii's former stand-alone animal-hoarding section, HRS 711-1109.6 with its fifteen-animal threshold, was repealed in 2015, folding hoarding into the general cruelty framework.)
Cruelty in the second degree is a misdemeanor; involving ten or more pet animals makes it a class C felony, with animals subject to seizure by law enforcement or a humane-society agent.
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