The Hawaii Senate judiciary committee has approved a bill aimed at regulating feral bird feeding. 

The proposal would make feeding feral birds a nuisance and authorize the director of health to investigate and prohibit the feeding.

The committee softened the House version of the bill that made feeding wild birds a violation of the penal code. 

Numerous people and animal rights groups said they oppose criminalizing bird feeding.

Pearl City resident Shigeko Mukai testified that her neighbors’ insistence on feeding wild birds causes an unbearable odor.

She says bird droppings have littered her property on a daily basis for more than 10 years.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Clayton Hee says there is no doubt about the problem but he believes it is a health issue, not a criminal one.