Question: Can you provide the status of House Bill 619 regarding the feeding of feral birds? It was passed by the Legislature this year. My husband and I enjoy feeding the birds at the park every day, especially the kolea, stone turners, saffron finches and all the other local birds. It saddens us to think that this bill will stop us from feeding the birds who have become friends and who come running when they see us.
Answer: At this point your bird feeding likely would not be affected, although health officials emphasize that it’s not a good idea nor necessary to feed feral animals.
The bill to prohibit feeding of feral birds if it becomes a public health nuisance took effect July 8, after it was signed into Act 269 by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
The state Department of Health is charged with enforcing the new law.
Unlike the bird-feeding ban around the Honolulu Zoo, the Honolulu Police Department is not responsible for enforcing Act 269, said Peter Oshiro, manager of the department’s Environmental Health Program.
“The DOH will look into complaints regarding the feeding of feral birds to assess whether or not a public health nuisance exists,” he said. “A public health nuisance is defined as a condition that is dangerous or injurious to health, or tends to or causes sickness or disease.”
The department has received “numerous complaints” since the law took effect, but so far, it “has not identified any properties that rise to the level” of being a public nuisance, Oshiro said.
That includes complaints against two Pearl City households, which led state Rep. Gregg Takayama, who represents the district, to champion the new law.
So far, he has “mixed feelings” about the law.
“I think the Department of Health has been less than proactive in actually enforcing the law,” he said. “They claim that the law as passed doesn’t provide clear enforcement authority for them.”
Because the two Pearl City properties were not found to be a threat to public health, he said, “my question is, What standards are they using to measure this by?”
The department never promulgated any standards to say what amount of bird droppings, etc., constitutes a public health nuisance.
“It’s pretty much left to the discretion of the vector control inspector as to whether he thinks it’s a threat to public health,” Takayama said.
“The DOH has not been less than proactive,” and deciding what constitutes a violation is not left to the discretion of an inspector, Oshiro responded.
“As prescribed by law, the inspector must document that there is a situation that is injurious or dangerous to health, or the conditions observed creates a concern that there is cause for sickness or disease,” he said. Although “nuisance” can be defined as an annoyance, a bother or a pest, he said, “the nuisance law will not be enforced capriciously nor taken lightly.”
Violators can be face penalties of up to $10,000 a day.
In the case of the two Pearl City households, letters were sent “strongly” urging them “to refrain from feeding feral birds due to the impact that this is having on neighboring properties.”
Oshiro also said the law doesn’t direct the department to promulgate rules or set standards, besides which, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to set standards about what amount of waste created by feeding birds would cause sickness or disease.
“These standards would have to be based on scientific studies showing risk of disease/injury is directly linked to the bird droppings or waste,” he said. “As far as we can determine, no such environmental health studies appear to exist.”
Alternative Solution?
The “proven and highly effective” alternative to citing people who feed birds and create a public health nuisance “is to ban feeding of birds in areas where lawmakers feel it is undesirable,”Oshiro said. “The public can still feed birds in other areas where the activity will not be objection-able to their neighbors.”
He pointed to how banning bird feeding around the zoo effectively took care of “the major problem with rampant bird feeders, which caused an explosion in the local pigeon population in the area,” with bird droppings causing a safety problem on sidewalks.
The city “recognized the problem, passed an ordinance banning the feeding of the birds and the problem with the bird feeders and the bird population has disappeared,” he said.
Oshiro said the primary message is that residents should show “common courtesy” to neighbors
and not feed “any feral animals, especially if your neighbors have expressed concerns or are bothered by the feeding due to unwanted odors, accumulation of droppings, allergic reactions to feathers and other animal waste.”
Basically, he said, “The feeding of feral animals is unnecessary and tends to attract other vermin, which creates unwanted waste and unwelcome problems for neighbors who live in adjacent or nearby properties.”
To make a complaint, call Vector Control first at 483-2535; if no one is available, call the Sanitation Branch at 586-8000.
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