Hawaii bill would allow residents to kill feral chickens on public land
HONOLULU — Crowing from wild chickens often begins before sunrise for residents near Honolulu’s parks, and some residents say the birds’ behavior has escalated into harassment, property damage and long-running frustration with limited control options. Hawaii lawmakers are now weighing proposals that would change how feral chickens are treated on public land in Honolulu, including whether residents would be allowed to kill them.
One of the most vocal examples comes from Mason Aiona, a retiree who said the 3 a.m. noise is not what bothers him most. He described spending much of the day shooing chickens from his yard, listening to constant squawking and feather-flapping, and dealing with people who feed the feral birds at a park steps from his house. “It’s a big problem,” he said, adding that the chickens are multiplying.
The proposals being considered include measures that would let residents kill wild chickens and would deem them a “controllable pest” on public land in Honolulu, according to AP. The package also includes penalties aimed at conduct such as feeding or releasing chickens in parks.
Supporters of the change say the animals’ impact is practical and immediate. Rep. Scot Matayoshi, a Democrat representing the Honolulu suburb of Kaneohe, said he began working on chicken-control legislation after hearing from a teacher who described the birds harassing students. Matayoshi said the children were afraid and that the birds would “kind of more aggressively go after the children for food,” attributing the problem to encounters in the classroom environment.
Rep. Jackson Sayama said he introduced a bill on getting rid of the chickens because current options are limited. Sayama said the lethal method would be at the resident’s discretion and pointed to a “old-school” approach, telling lawmakers: “If you want to go old-school, just break the chicken’s neck, that’s perfectly fine.” He also said there are “many different ways you can do it,” in remarks carried by AP.
City trapping efforts have not, supporters say, been enough to stem the growing presence of the birds. Honolulu has spent thousands of dollars trapping chickens, according to AP, and the Honolulu Department of Customer Services said the department saw a 51% increase in complaints about feral chickens in 2025. Harold Nedd, a department spokesperson, also said more than 1,300 chickens were caught through the program last year.
Aiona said he has lived near downtown Honolulu for decades and that wild chickens arrived in his neighborhood about a decade ago, with the population growing during the COVID-19 pandemic. He recalled trying to remove a chicken by hand and transporting it for disposal, but he said the time-consuming effort proved futile. He said he does not personally want to kill chickens and instead prefers relocation to a rural farm, while also arguing that a city trapping program remains too expensive.
Despite the arguments from residents who see the birds as pests, opponents say the chickens have deeper cultural meaning. Kealoha Pisciotta, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner and animal advocate, said she disagrees with killing feral chickens simply because they are a nuisance. She said some of today’s chickens descended from birds brought to the islands by early Polynesian voyagers and described their significance to Hawaiian voyaging traditions, saying: “The moa is very significant,” and “They were on our voyaging, came with us.”
The Hawaiian Humane Society opposes allowing residents to kill feral chickens as a population-control measure unless other strategies have been exhausted, according to AP. It frames the issue as not only about control of an urban wildlife population, but also about whether lethal removal should be considered a last resort in a broader set of management options.
The debate is likely to remain contentious because feeding behavior and cultural attachment can push outcomes in opposite directions. While Aiona said he is tired of having to tell park-goers to stop feeding the chickens, he also said he does not recommend that anyone eat them and welcomed anyone who wanted a chicken to come pick one up without charge.