HONOLULU (AP) — The crowing starts well before the sun rises over Mason Aiona’s home in Hawaii.

But the 3 a.m. rooster alarm isn’t what bothers the retiree the most. It’s spending most of the day shooing away wild chickens that dig holes in his yard, listening to constant squawking and feather-flapping, and scolding people who feed the feral birds at a park steps from his house.

“It’s a big problem,” he said of the roosters, hens and chicks waddling around on the narrow road between his Honolulu house and the city park. “And they’re multiplying.”

Communities across the state have been dealing with pervasive fowl for years. Honolulu has spent thousands of dollars trapping them, to little avail. Now state lawmakers are considering possible solutions — including measures that would let residents kill feral chickens, deem them a “controllable pest” on public land in Honolulu, and fine people for feeding them or releasing them in parks.

Chickens’ cultural ties

But one person’s nuisance is another’s cultural symbol, a dynamic that has also played out in Miami and some other cities with populations of wild chickens.

Kealoha Pisciotta, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner and animal advocate, disagrees with killing feral chickens simply because they’re a nuisance. Some chickens today descended from those brought to the islands by early Polynesian voyagers, she said.

“The moa is very significant,” she said, using the Hawaiian word for chicken. “They were on our voyaging, came with us.”

The Hawaiian Humane Society opposes letting residents kill the chickens “as a means of population control unless all other strategies have been exhausted.”

Aggressive birds

Rep. Scot Matayoshi, a Democrat representing the Honolulu suburb of Kaneohe, said he started crafting chicken control legislation after he heard from an elementary school teacher in his district that the birds were harassing the pupils.

“The children were afraid of them, and they would kind of more aggressively go after the children for food,” Matayoshi said.

Rep. Jackson Sayama said he introduced the chicken-killing bill because there are currently limited ways to get rid of them. The lethal method would be at the resident’s discretion.

“If you want to go old-school, just break the chicken’s neck, that’s perfectly fine,” said the Democrat who represents part of Honolulu. “There’s many different ways you can do it.”

A fowl problem keeps growing

Chicken eradication bills have failed over the years, Matayoshi said. Chicken birth control was an idea discussed when he was on a neighborhood board.

“I think there are people who are taking it more seriously now,” he said.

For more than 30 years, Aiona, 74, has lived in a valley near downtown Honolulu in a house his wife Leona grew up in. Wild chickens didn’t show up in their neighborhood until about a decade ago, they said. The birds proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He once saw a man take a chicken out of his car, leave it in the park and drive away, he said.

When the chickens first appeared outside his home, he caught one with his bare hands and put it in a plastic trash can, then drove it to a park near the airport. “I took off the cover, tipped it over and the chicken ran right out,” he said. “I said … ‘Don’t come back again.’”

But he quickly realized the time-consuming effort was futile.

He’s personally not interested in killing chickens, preferring for someone to scoop them up and take them to a rural farm. A city trapping program is too expensive, he said.

The city contracts with a pest-control company that traps chickens. A weeklong service costs a private property owner $375, plus a $50 cage rental fee and disposal fee of $10 per chicken.

More than 1,300 chickens were caught through the program last year, said Honolulu Department of Customer Services spokesperson Harold Nedd, who added the department also saw a 51% increase in complaints about feral chickens in 2025.

Chicken for dinner?

Wild chickens aren’t likely to make a cheap dinner. The meat is tougher than poultry raised for harvesting, and the feral birds can be a vector of disease.

One of Aiona’s neighbors shoos them with a leaf blower. “I have a blower, too, but mine is electric,” Aiona said. “It can only go so far with the cord.”

Aiona has grown tired of spending his retirement telling park-goers to stop feeding the chickens. And while he doesn’t recommend that anyone eat them, he welcomes anyone who wants one to come get it.

“No charge,” he said.

Aloha was the operative word in Halawa on Tuesday.

Out with the old officially started at Aloha Stadium as destruction began for the 50,000-seat facility, which opened in 1975 and hosted its final sports event a little over five years ago.

In with the new begins in early 2029, when construction of the new stadium is expected to be completed.

The demolition work started Tuesday with a chunk from the top of the stadium being yanked off using heavy construction equipment.

It was also a big day overall for the New Aloha Stadium
Entertainment District public-­private partnership that will
develop the surrounding community with the new stadium as its centerpiece. A blessing for the project at the Stadium Authority’s new portable office spaces was preceded by significant
contract progress in the
private-public partnership, officials said.

“This morning, from
7:30 to 9:30, we completed our negotiations, in principle, for (NASED) master developer,” said developer Stanford Carr, leader of the private conglomerate of Aloha Halawa District Partners. AHDP will be responsible for the stadium, and 98 acres including the area surrounding the facility.

Plans call for developing a community, including at least 4,100 residences, two hotels, an office tower, and entertainment, retail, education and open spaces, according to the NASED website.

The master developer agreement leaves just one contract, unrelated to the stadium itself, to be completed. Two previously signed contracts are for razing the old stadium and constructing the new one.

Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. employees began the demolition Tuesday morning, using a high-reach excavator to remove the top level of one of the makai side spiral walkways. It is the first visible sign of work on the long-delayed project, which was abruptly halted in the early stages in late 2022 when then-Gov. David Ige said he wanted a more traditional stand-alone stadium built with the $350 million allotted by the state Legislature.

The $350 million went to AHDP for starter money for the stadium; the group will need to find or generate other funding for the rest of the NASED project, which is expected to make a greater than $2 billion economic
impact with a 20-year
development period, according to the NASED
website.

Demolition continues today, and will accelerate as more heavy equipment arrives on the site, stadium manager Michael Yadao said.

Officials expect demolition to be done by the end of the year. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2027, according to the current timeline.

The new stadium is now projected to seat up to 31,000 people, with no bleacher seating, Carr told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month. This is an increase from a low of 22,500 seats projected last August, and Carr now foresees 28 luxury suites instead of the 10 in previous plans.

Kahu Kordell Kekoa conducted Tuesday’s blessing. “Every day is a good day to start something new,” he said. “And every day is a good day to let something go.”

Several other speakers followed, including Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who after his University of Hawaii football playing days was an assistant coach when the team changed homes from Honolulu Stadium to the brand-new Aloha Stadium
in 1975.

“Then I had the privilege to be on the headset (as color commentator) with Jim Leahey for 13 years, when the games were mostly sold out,” he said. “You could feel it. The stadium was rocking.”

Blangiardi added that he admired the courage to undertake and execute such an ambitious plan, and promised his ongoing support.

Former Stadium Authority Chair Brennon Morioka, now Gov. Josh Green’s adviser on NASED issues, said success will depend on continued collaboration of all levels of government.

Yadao emceed the event, and introduced Al Oha, an AI-generated cartoon character his wife, Chelsey, came up with to tease him for his retro-style Aloha Stadium shirt. Now Al Oha will be used to educate keiki about the history of the first Aloha Stadium and the future of NASED, Yadao said.

“Aloha means hello, aloha means goodbye and aloha means love,” said state Sen. Glenn Wakai, who represents the surrounding communities and has championed NASED from the beginning 16 years ago, when the land was acquired by the state from the U.S. Navy. “It’s going to be a place for revitalization.”

Patrick Klein, a lifelong Hawaii resident with deep ties to the local business and not-for-profit community, officially took over as CEO of Easterseals Hawaii at the start of the new year. As CEO, he’ll work closely with teams across the state to advance the non-profit’s goal of creating a more inclusive world by filling gaps in human services and empowering individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

For more than 75 years, Easterseals Hawaii has been serving keiki to kupuna with intellectual or developmental disabilities through services that include early intervention, autism services, adult home and community-based services and employment services for individuals with I/DD. 

“We welcome this exciting next chapter at Easterseals Hawaii and congratulate Patrick on his new role within the organization,” said Danielle Yafuso, the board chair of Easterseals Hawaii. “His dynamic leadership and deep commitment to our community will strengthen ESH’s impact statewide, especially during this important period of service growth and expanded support for those we serve.”

Klein joined Easterseals Hawaii in 2025 as vice president of programs, when he was hired to oversee statewide program operations and support the development of new services. With nearly 200 local employees and locations across the islands, ESH serves over 1,800 families through approximately 720 hours of care each day.  

Raised in Hawaii, Klein most recently served as chief revenue officer at aio Hawaii. Prior to that, he spent over 20 years in the local media industry including time as a vice president with Oahu Publications, Inc. Consistently demonstrating his commitment to creating a meaningful impact across the state, he has held numerous board and volunteer leadership roles, including with HUGS, Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii, the GIFT Foundation, Navian (formerly Hospice Hawaii) and the Hawaii Catholic Diocese. 

Andrea Pettiford, who has served as CEO since 2021, will depart the organization at the end of February to pursue an advanced clinical degree. The two-month overlap allows for a smooth transition within the organization.  

“We wholeheartedly thank Andrea for her dedication and many meaningful contributions to Easterseals Hawaii over the past six years,” Yafuso said. “Under her leadership, our staff and families have made remarkable progress, navigating historically challenging times and positioning our organization to deliver the highest level of individualized, family-centered care for those we serve.”

ESH has a nine-member board of directors, based in Hawaiʻi, many of whom have directly benefited from ESH services for their family. Members are: Alex Lim; Chad Asato, vice chair; Connie Santilli; Danielle Yafuso, chair; Doug Chin; Josh Stinson; Kellie Arakaki-Kodama; Terri Fujii, treasurer; and Tim Sakahara, secretary.