Honolulu's feral chicken trapping program is being sabotaged by residents who smash the traps, and the city — meaning taxpayers — pays to replace them.

• The city pays a pest control contractor to set traps in public parks when people call the 311 hotline.
• Flocks of wild chickens leave droppings and feathers, scratch cars, roost under homes, and draw mongooses.
• Some people like the birds and destroy the traps, while others want them gone — it has split neighborhoods.
• Each wrecked trap costs about $300 to replace, out of a $100,000 yearly city budget for the program.
• Pigeons also jam the traps and steal the bait, forcing crews to reset them.

Outlook: The trapping will continue, but the program will keep losing money to vandalism unless neighbors stop feeding the birds and breaking the traps.