Domingo Cravalho gave us a tour of the facility where the state keeps animals confiscated because they're not supposed to be in Hawaii.

"This other one over here is called the Red Bellied Piranha. Normally we intercept these things as a dime sized fish. So as you can see, it's been with us for a while," Cravalho said.

Cravalho is chief of the inspection and compliance section of the Department of Agriculture.

"This is what we affectionately call our animal holding room. Others call it our illegal pet shop. And the reason being is that these are where all the animals that we either encounter through investigations where we seize it from individuals or people turn it in under amnesty," Cravalho said.

The animals here are cared for kept alive to be used as part of the department's education and awareness program. There are hedge hogs, giant Madagascar cockroaches that hiss when threatened and Chilean rose tarantulas.

"If you miss handle it, if you startle it, it'll sink its fangs into you. In fact we've had our inspectors actually having the fangs, but not getting invenomated," Cravalho said.

Every animal in the state's so called illegal zoo could be a threat to Hawaii's environment if released. They could damage, even wipe out indigenous plant and animal populations.

"And it just impacts our ecosystems, so we need to be very careful about what we bring into our Hawaiian Islands," Cravalho said.

If you spot a suspicious animal, one you don't think belongs in Hawaii, report it to the Department of Agriculture. The people there are working to protect what is truly Hawaiian.

---