Question: The tenants in a house across the street have put cages of chickens and roosters on their front lawn. This is in a compact residential area. Is this legal? If not, what do we do? The noise is terrible and it starts at 4:30 a.m.!
Answer: It’s not illegal, per se, to own chickens in Oahu’s residential areas. However, there are laws restricting the fowls’ number, location and noise, which your neighbor may be violating.
Call the Hawaiian Humane Society, which as of Friday has been augmenting the Honolulu Police Department as an investigator of animal-nuisance complaints involving chickens and peafowl (it has long investigated such complaints about dogs and cats). Call the Society’s field services team at 356-2250.
We’ll emphasize that the humane society is not responding to feral chickens, and is not trapping and removing chickens of either type (owned or feral).
Its contract with the city is focused on investigating reported violations of municipal statutes that limit the number of chickens a household may own (two in most areas, per Revised Ordinances of Honolulu Section 7-2.5) and the noise the animals make (no more than 10 minutes continuously, 30 minutes intermittently, or any unreasonable disturbance that interferes with “reasonable communication, work, rest, recreation or sleep,” per ROH 7-2.2). From your description, it seems that your neighbor is in violation in both regards.
If you file a complaint, the Hawaiian Humane Society will send your neighbor a letter and an educational brochure, said Allison Andrade Gammel, the organization’s community relations director. The follow-up varies slightly, depending on whether it was a noise or number complaint, she said.
If, after two weeks, you report that your neighbor still has too many chickens, the humane society will send an investigator to the property and may issue a citation on the spot.
In cases of noncompliance on noise complaints, you would be asked if you are willing to complete a Citizen Complaint Form and testify in court, Gammel said.
If the answer is yes, an investigator “will then visit the reported owner, assess the situation and determine if the owner is in compliance with the ordinance. If found to be noncompliant, a citation may be issued by our Humane Investigator. Citations include a first-time fine of $50, up to a maximum fine of $1,000,” she said.
Q: Does the city still have a vendor to control feral chickens on city property?
A: No. The previous contract with an exterminator has expired. The city is looking into other options now, said Randy Leong, deputy director of the city’s Department of Customer Services.
“In December 2016, the Department of Customer Services issued a Request for Information (RFI) on how to humanely capture and eradicate feral chickens on city-owned property. The information requested focused on describing industry best practices, but was not limited to the means and methods of eradicating feral chickens. We also sought information on safety precautions, animal guidelines and devices required for the project. We have received two responses and are awaiting a third. CSD recognizes the need to have a feral chicken eradication program and will evaluate the responses to determine the best course of action.”
The previous service applied only on city property, as you noted. If feral chickens on private property are a nuisance, the property owner is left to deal with the problem.
The humane society lists companies that rent chicken traps to do-it-yourselfers and an exterminator that traps and removes feral fowl for a fee. See the list at 808ne.ws/2kuznG4.
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