HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0765.118 2016-2018 Murashige, Laura
From: Howard Hall <hhall9@icloud.com>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 2:20 PM
To: Council Testimony
Cc: Howard Hall
Subject: Testimony AGAINST County of Hawaii Bill No 1'
Attachments: Testimony AGAINST County of Hawaii Bill No 112.docx;Testimony AGAINST County of
Hawaii Bill No 112.pdf
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Comm. No. /CI S. 11E(
Ref. To:
Ref. Date MAR 1 3 2018
1
Testimony AGAINST County of Hawaii Bill No. 112, March 13, 2018
I am Howard Hall, Member and Manager of the Hall Family Enterprises, LLC,which owns a
14-acre farm in Lalamilo Farm Lots in Waimea, Hawaii.
In short,this is a special interest serving, sloppily written bill showing total ignorance of
the unintended effects of its language,and an obvious lack of research.
I will not begin to dignify with any comment the self-evident absurdities stated in Section 1
of this bill.
In Section 2 the bill defines a"Rooster farm" as any parcel where more that four roosters
are "otherwise maintained". That statement is not well thought out and can easily be
twisted to allow punitive and shallow complainers to cause undue abuse of their neighbors.
There are a lot of free-ranging feral chickens all over Waimea, and the island in general. Just
look along the roadside going down Hina Lani Street on the way to Costco. And Kauai has
loads of feral chickens too.
On our farm there must be about 20 or more feral chickens including at least 7 or 8
"roosters". They are free to come and go on our property and throughout the
neighborhood. We disperse dry dog food on the ground in locations on our farm where we
want them to forage. The chickens are excellent at interdicting agricultural bugs and pests
and even mice (a favorite of the roosters),which allows us to use no pesticides on our
produce. So, for our farm these feral chickens and roosters are an ally and an asset.
And since the absurdly broad wording in this bill will view my feeding the chickens dog
food as "otherwise maintaining" them, then I am responsible for the chickens and most
importantly in this bill,the roosters, and I must confine them and also dispose of the excess
roosters.
So, if this ridiculous bill becomes law, simply because we have fed these free range feral
roosters,we will be forced to build a fence around the interior of the farm 75' from all
boundaries and approximately 12 feet tall, because wild roosters can and do fly and can
easily clear a normal field fence.
That is a serious expense and a major inconvenience to our farm operations caused by this
faulty bill. We in agriculture should not be pushed around by the likes of those backing this
bill who perhaps own agricultural land, or live near some, but do not like the associated
smells and sounds.
All this is ludicrous, especially in the face of the elephant in the room.
I find it hard to believe that my County Council sees my free ranging, feral roosters as some
sort of threat while ignoring the elephant in the room of feral cats who are also "otherwise
maintained" by all sorts of people and organizations.
The Humane Society is an out of touch organization that does not recognize the clear
damage feral cats are causing, and who actively support the misguided "catch and release"
activities in this state. We all see people "otherwise maintaining" multiple cats in our parks
and public places. And unlike chickens,the cats have a proven record of being the only host
for the deadly toxoplasmosis that has killed Monk Seals, Dolphins, and is seriously life
threatening to the fetuses of pregnant humans.
Feral cats are truly an island and state wide major issue. Cats are the top predator in our
state. We don't have coyotes or eagles to keep the cat population in check. So the cats are
free to wreak havoc with our native bird populations.
The people of this County have entrusted this Council to tackle the important issues facing
us and to do due diligence in making laws ONLY WHEN NECESSARY for the betterment of a
significant number of constituents, and to avoid pettiness. The County Council should
write a useful law addressing a really important issue of holding accountable those who
feed and support feral cats,way before going after agriculture and my free ranging,bug
eating, soil turning feral roosters.
Washington is not the only place where book smart intelligent bureaucrats write ignorant
and poor law for special interests. Writing good law takes some real effort and research
and cannot be achieved when so obviously it, as this bill demonstrates, is a slap-dash
cobble of petty whining. Knee jerk law is always bad law.
Shame on Eileen O'Hara and Keith Dane (who has also expressed support for this bill) as
they both have much more important work they should be doing.
I ask my County Council to please reject the carelessly written, easily twisted, and special
interest motivated bill 112.
Respectfully Submitted:
Howard Hall