My girlfriend and I arrived to Rolene’s place late at night after a long day of traveling from the Midwestern US, and she was very responsive and made checking in very simple.
She was awake to greet us, and showed us to our accommodations in the small apartment unit we were renting in the back of her house. That region of Maui had been experiencing some heavy rains in the days leading up to our arrival, and she pointed out a spot in the ceiling above the bed that had water leaking through the roof and the ceiling was sagging slightly (in this one spot) under the weight of the leaking water. There was no water dripping into the room, but she wanted us to be aware of it in case the rain continued and caused the ceiling to spring a leak. This was no problem for us, and I appreciated the heads up.
Rolene’s rental unit was clean, efficient, and affordable, which is all you can usually ask for. The only reason I don’t give a 5 star rating was because an issue that we take very seriously...
There seems to be some animal neglect taking place here. The next morning, on the first day of our stay, we awoke excitedly and very happy to be in the island paradise of Maui. We went out to breakfast in the nearby iconic town of Hana (2 min down the road) and returned to the rental to take showers and get ready for the day. While in the bathroom, I looked out the window and saw a goat tied up in the backyard/field behind the rental. My gf and I are both animal lovers, so we were excited to see the goat. But after examine the scene for a moment I realized that the goat was on a very short chain (3-4 feet long) attached to a truck tire. We went outside to investigate further and saw that there was no water for the goat to drink anywhere, and no shade or shelter for the animal to escape the blistering sun of the tropics. The goat’s horns were growing in a spiral that were beginning to bore into the flesh of its skull, which seemed a clear sign of neglect. I know that goats can eat basically any type of plants, so I wasn’t terribly concerned that it was going to starve, but we still gave it some oranges that we had brought.
My girlfriend inquired about the goat’s well-being to Rolene, who insisted that the goat was treated well and given food and water. We saw no evidence of this the entire time we were there (2 nights/1 full day). We gave him water in a dish from the kitchen of the rental, but it was still left exposed to the elements the whole time. It was raining quite hard at one point, and when we returned from an outing we discovered that the goat was still there, with no shelter. At one point, the chain had gotten tangled and the goat’s mobility was effectively reduced to pacing back and forth, seemingly in some sort of psychosis. We felt terribly for this creature’s obvious suffering. My girlfriend called the Humane Society to report the neglected animal, but when she told them that it was located in remote eastern Maui (Hana), it became clear that the Humane Society, based on the other side of the island in west/central Maui, wouldn’t be making it a priority to act on the information.
It’s imperative that we, as humans, give a voice to the voiceless and that we act as good stewards to the land and its inhabitants. I know there is a big push for this type of environmental stewardship in a lot of the Hawaiian islands, so I don’t think this type of animal neglect is representative of most people there.
I would only support Rolene’s rental business if I could be assured that there are no animals being treated with neglect on the premises. If this scenario was remedied then I would be happy to offer a 5 star review.