Dead chickens a new nuisance on Oahu’s North Shore
By Kristen Consillio
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HALEIWA, Hawaii (KITV) — The noise and activities of wild chickens are a part of living in rural areas of Hawaii. But some residents on Oahu’s North Shore say they are seeing fewer and fewer of these feral birds. And they wonder if there is a sinister reason why.
Born and raised in Sunset Beach, Richard Hoapili is used to waking up every morning to the sound of chickens.
But he suspects not everyone likes it.
“Lately there’s been a lot of dead chickens around the neighborhood,” he said. “The neighbor up the road buried I think 15 chickens.”
Residents are finding dozens of them throughout the North Shore.
“There’s never been an amount like that of chickens dying and I’ve lived here all my life,” Hoapili said. “It’s the country, you know, people eat the eggs. Homeless guys eat the chickens so we no poison anything out here. If anything we feed them, fatten them up.”
Down the road, a resident named Mary said she experienced something similar a couple of years ago and knew by the smell that it was happening all over again.
“It’s a horrid smell. It’s a dead animal smell. Like dead cat or dead dog,” she said. “It’s awful. The rotting in our hot sun. Nobody likes that.”
According to the city, feral chicken nuisances are among the top complaints, with many on Oahu fed up with the foraging in residential areas, agitating household pets, the waste left behind and of course, the noise.
But Hoapili said that should be expected in the country.
“If you don’t like the chickens and you cannot handle the crowing of the chickens at all times of the night, you’re in the wrong neighborhood,” he said. “Now more and more people showing up, they don’t like the idea that the chickens make noise super early in the morning. Go back to where you came from.”
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