AR-News: (US) HI: Game Breeders work with Animal Care Foundation

[cathy goeggel]

Group helps simmer
down roosters
The Hawaii Game Breeders
offer tips to quiet the birds so
people can sleep

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori at starbulletin.com
A group devoted to cockfighting is hoping to spread good will by offering
their fowl knowledge and feral chicken-trapping services to residents who
are sick and tired of roosters crowing at all hours.

Pat Royos, who lobbies against legislation that would make cockfighting a
felony, said she hopes the Hawaii Game Breeders Association's efforts will
soften lawmakers' and the community's attitudes against them.

Royos, first vice president of group, and other members answer feral chicken
and crowing rooster complaints with some simple advice: "When you turn on
the light at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom, the rooster thinks the
sun is coming up," she said. "Put a towel or blanket over the box or cage so
they won't be able to see the light."

Neighborhood board members and City Council members have passed on
complaints from residents to this group as well as to the Animal Care
Foundation.

Lennard Pepper, vice chairman of the Salt Lake/ Aliamanu/Foster Village
Neighborhood Board, said the Game Breeders group has been helpful.

"Apparently the breeders know how to keep these chickens quiet," Pepper
said. "If we can get a nice sleep, that's all we ask."

He said the problem is a health issue when people cannot get any sleep and
get irritable.

"We solved a problem in this very small area of the neighborhood, but as far
as I know, the problem goes on in other areas," he said.

The group helps catch feral chickens by setting its traps where the chickens
are known to roost. (Although the Hawaiian Humane Society has a few chicken
traps, there is a long waiting list for them.)

Royos takes home any chickens they catch and gives them away to anyone who
wants them.

Royos and other members of her group visited a Foster Village home where two
crowing roosters live.

Arly Ishoda said he was initially put off by strangers arriving at his door
with a complaint from his neighbor, who he thought should have come to him
personally.

"If they (are) complaining, they should have come see me," Ishoda said he
told Royos. "We could have solved it between us instead of having somebody
else come over."

But Ishoda acknowledged he had no idea how to keep the roosters from crowing
at night. So he heeded their advice and had his nephew cover the coop with
black plastic bags at night, and the family kept the kitchen light off.

"What they tell me is true," he said. "Once they see light (they crow)."

Ishoda said he appreciated the visit from the Game Breeders. "That was nice
of them," he said. Now the roosters do not crow until dawn.

City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said the problem of barking dogs and crowing
roosters arose when the Hawaiian Humane Society stopped answering nuisance
calls because it failed to receive $80,000 in additional funding from the
City Council.

"The burden was laid on the Police Department," she said. "They are very
busy. They're understaffed, and they have so much to do."

Kobayashi said the Game Breeders and Animal Care Foundation came forward to
answer nuisance calls, and she is trying to legitimize the groups to get
some funding so they can be reimbursed for educational materials and travel
costs.

She has been passing some calls on to the groups.

Police Maj. Doug Miller agreed that responding to animal nuisance calls
taxes HPD's resources.

"We do welcome whatever assistance that the community can come up with,
because it is a challenge for our patrol officers to take on this task,"
said Miller, who helped draft the animal nuisance laws.

It often takes an officer 45 minutes to answer a call, he said. To establish
an animal nuisance offense, an officer must wait outside to verify 10
minutes of continuous crowing or barking or 30 minutes of intermittent
crowing or barking.

Miller expressed reservations about a group trying to promote an illegal
activity but said he is not familiar with the Game Breeders Association.

"If it's just to help with a problem, there may be some room for that
approach," he said. "We're willing to work with groups or individuals in
addressing the problems."



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Anyone with crowing roosters or feral chickens in their neighborhood can
call the Hawaii Game Breeders Association at 239-9611 and 256-4502, or
Animal Care Foundation at 941-2452.