Dog owners are biting back against the “demonising and villainising” of their pets by conservation groups, as the council’s controversial dog bylaw remains open for submission until the end of next week.
The beaches of Little Kaiteriteri and Stephens Bay are currently controlled dog areas, accessible in the summer months between 5am and 9am only.
The Tasman District Council’s draft bylaw suggests that these beaches, as well as neighbouring Dummy Bay, become year-round leash-only dog areas, in a move that the council hopes “simplifies the rules, still allows dog exercise, but also protects wildlife”.
Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast show on Monday, Tasman Bay Blue Penguin Trust founding trustee Linda Jenkins said that the current bylaw “is not enough to protect the species”.
“We don’t see any merit to having dogs… sharing the same space as a protected native species which is at risk and declining.”
But Riwaka local Brendan Alborn, speaking on behalf of a group of dog owners, says that the bylaw changes are overkill “and are not going to solve the problem as stated”.
He reckons the idea of taking a dog to the beach to walk them on a lead, rather than having them chasing sticks and swimming in the ocean, “is comical”.
“It’s going to affect, in a really adverse way, lots and lots of people,” he says.
Brendan, who is the commercial director and owner of several Abel Tasman-based tourism operations, says he takes exception to the narrative that a person is either a dog owner or a wildlife lover.
He estimates that he has spent about 4000 hours at the beach with his border collie Maggie, and he says that during that time, “my dog and I have harmed exactly zero members of our wildlife”.
He is frustrated that some “reasonably hard-core” special-interest groups are giving dogs top billing as the problem for coastal wildlife.
He appreciates that these groups are “doing great work, but not at the expense of society”.
“It’s really felt like a bit of a smear campaign.”
Fellow dog owner Claire Hutt says that there are better compromises that could be made than the proposed changes, such as having dogs off-leash between the high and low tide marks only.
“We’re not dog lovers at the expense of wildlife, but there has to be a balance.”
The bylaw changes have drawn almost 300 submissions so far, and at the 1 August full council meeting, community policy advisor Cat Budai said that “community division is going to be inevitable with this bylaw”.
“There is not a possible way to put something out there that absolutely everyone is going to be happy [with],” she told the councillors.
“We’ve aimed for a balanced approach, but we need to be mindful that compromise is not the purpose of the bylaw.
“At the same time, we need a degree of pragmatism, and we don’t want to force non-compliance.”
Motueka ward councillor Brent Maru agreed that regulation was not going to fix the problem.
“Good dog owners will fix this,” he said. “I suspect that this is going to be the biggest bylaw that we will have this year.”
Submissions on the bylaw can be made here before 8 September.
