Posted on: Sunday, November 24, 2002

EDITORIAL
Council needn't cater to rooster interests

What is this hold that rooster owners have over elected officials in Hawai'i, where we rail against gambling and yet lack the guts to make the inhumane bloodsport of cockfighting a felony?

The Honolulu City Council has chickened out on passing a law that would essentially ban roosters from residential areas by classifying them as farm animals.

Instead, they suggest rooster owners and their sleep-deprived neighbors settle the noise problems among themselves.

Councilwoman Darrlyn Bunda said she favored such a compromise so the council wouldn't have to legislate a solution. Isn't that what the council is supposed to do when mediation and other measures aren't working?

Moreover, Bunda urged rooster owners to come up with a plan so they can keep their critters without being a nuisance to their neighbors. Again, if that were possible, the community wouldn't have appealed to the City Council for help in the first place.

We urge the next City Council to take pity on folks who can't sleep through the round-the-clock crowing, and to stand up to what appears to be a formidable cockfighting lobby in the Islands.