Nest-season dog ban
PROTECTING our nesting sea birds has become a real dog’s dinner along our urban coast, with off-leash dogs attacking anything that moves. Most at risk are birds that nest close to the shore or on the dunes.
Pied and sooty oystercatchers, sandpipers, Pacific gulls, hooded plovers and masked lapwings are just a few rapidly disappearing from our shores. Added to the destruction from dog attack is encroachment by humans on their habitat. No wonder fewer and fewer successfully breed.
Even our hardy native hen comes under attack regularly as chicks struggle to survive the onslaught from dogs and traffic.
Surely we can ban dogs from beaches for the short breeding season each year and impose severe penalties for infringements. It’s a small
inconvenience to help insure the future populations of some of the world’s most wonderful and dynamic birds. Instead of walking your dog on the beach, observe the birds living there.
Vyv Alomes Dodges Ferry