Council puts off ban on roosters
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser staff writer
An attempt to ban roosters from Pearl City to Hawai'i Kai got held up in the City Council Zoning Committee yesterday after more than a dozen rooster owners showed up to oppose the bill.
The measure was deferred indefinitely while an animal-rights organization and game fowl breeders try to solve the problem by educating rooster owners.
Val Lee of the Hawai'i Gamefowl Breeders Association said the group had not received any calls since first offering their services to the Council last November.
"We can help you with roosters by contacting people and telling them how they can quiet down their chickens," he said.
The group was formed last year as the previous City Council considered banning roosters in residential areas on O'ahu.
"This is to help us keep our animals," Lee said. "We'll be working with the rest of the community. We're here to help because we love our birds."
Rooster breeders say the animals can be kept quiet with hoods, carrying cases, muzzles, surgical procedures, soundproofing or lowering the ceiling of a coop or pen.
Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said the Animal Care Foundation was organizing the educational effort. "They actually will go out and try to educate the owners," she said.
She said the council had responsibility for the issue since the Hawaiian Humane Society stopped handling animal-nuisance calls last year, leaving police to deal with barking dogs and crowing roosters. Under Kobayashi's plan, police would refer animal-nuisance complaints to the volunteers, who would teach the owners how to quiet their pets.
When the previous council considered a rooster ban, several people came out to testify about the birds crowing at all hours. This time, no members of the public came to support the ban.
In fact, Kobayashi, who asked for the deferral, was the only person to highlight the problem, describing how roosters run through her Manoa yard. "They don't know that on Saturday and Sunday you don't have to wake people up. So I do have a problem, too," she said. "However, I understand how difficult it is. People have these roosters. They are pets."
Waipahu resident Doffo Targuian considers them family. "Roosters, you take good care, like a baby. That's your son and that's your daughter," he said.
Like Targuian, the other rooster owners who testified did not live in residential, resort, apartment or apartment mixed-use districts, which would be affected by the bill.
But Pat Royos of Kahalu'u said that even a ban in urban areas would "open a Pandora's box. It's going to go all the way down to 'Ewa, Waipahu and Nanakuli, wherever. This is why we're here to oppose this bill."
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
