STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1208-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2195

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 2195, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOWL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a five-year feral chicken eradication pilot program within the Department of Health.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Julie Peine Trust, Mo'Bettah Handyman Services, Pono Advocacy, Makor Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Hawaiian Humane Society, and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health; Save Hawaii Chickens, a petition signed by numerous individuals; and thirteen individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Budget and Finance; and Innolytics, LLC.

Your Committee finds that feral chickens are a persistent nuisance in urban and suburban communities throughout the State, as they trespass into yards and gardens, dig up plants, damage food crops, jeopardize native plants, create a noise nuisance, create road hazards for drivers, and pose health concerns through droppings, parasites, and disease transmission. Your Committee further finds that this measure will task the State with determining humane and cost-effective means of addressing the feral chicken problem in communities throughout the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the purpose of the pilot program to population management, rather than eradication, of the feral chicken population;

(2) Tasking the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, rather than the Department of Health in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, with establishing the pilot program, and making conforming amendments;

(3) Deleting the requirement that a special local need registration be submitted for the use of OvoControl;

(4) Amending the scope of the mandatory annual reports to include the pilot program's efficacy in the State, rather than only in certain Oahu neighborhoods; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2195, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2195, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture,

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair