'Neighbour against neighbour': Tasman community divided over dog rules

New proposals limiting where dogs can be exercised have stoked tensions between dog owners and conservationists across Tasman.

Nowhere is this more evident than at the scenic Little Kaiteriteri Beach where "neighbour is against neighbour".

Currently, dogs are permitted on the beach, except for summer months when they're only allowed between 5 and 9am.

But Tasman District Council is now proposing to allow dogs on the beach year-round provided they are on leash.

The council's reasoning for the change would be to simplify the rules while still allowing dogs to exercise and the protection of wildlife.

Little Kaiteriteri is an important site for little blue penguins/kororā, which have an 'at-risk/declining' conservation status.

However, the site is also one of the district's most popular for beachgoers, and many homes and baches are within a short walk of the beach.

Mark Oldfield was one of many Little Kaiteriteri homeowners who presented to the panel of councillors overseeing the hearing for the council’s proposed bylaw.

The division of the coastal community is evident to him, he told councillors on Wednesday.

"Most dog owners are good people, and I love dogs myself," he acknowledged.

"My besties have dogs at Little Kaiteri — although some of those besties, after hearing this submission, might not be such besties in future."

Citing concerns about fouling, wildlife, and attacks, he would be "more than happy" for the dogs to be prohibited from the beach entirely, as they are across the bay at Kaiteriteri Beach.

But Oldfield's perspective wasn't shared by all in the neighbourhood.

Anna Perkins said the beach was a recreation reserve, not a wildlife reserve.

"It needs to be a space that is shared and respected and can be used by all."

The problem, she said, lay with a minority of bad dog owners who didn't respect the rules, and good dog-owning residents shouldn't have to lose the "special" morning hours that they share with each other and their pets.

Retired vet Kathleen Lloyd represented an informal group of dog owners in Tasman Bay and was highly critical of the council's proposal, saying that it demonised dog owners and restricted their freedom of movement.

"It's simply ludicrous to target alleged harms of dogs and to give a free pass to all existing developments and human activities."

Similarly to Perkins, she said the proposed bylaw would punish good dog owners and ignored the real problem of wandering dogs that were unaccompanied by their owners.

She rejected the idea of dogs being consigned from beaches to dog parks, which she likened to "ghettos".

But conservationists were equally staunch in their assertions that the presence of dogs negatively affected local wildlife.

Linda Jenkins is a resident of Little Kaiteriteri and a trustee of the Tasman Bay Blue Penguin Trust.

She said it was "irrefutable" that dogs kill penguins.

"Notwithstanding little penguins have other predators and threats, dogs are the single-most significant and preventable cause of death of little penguins in urban areas."

She cited a study which showed that while humans walking along a beach disturbed seabirds 47% of the time, that number jumped to 94% when the people had a dog on a leash, or 100% of the time if the dog was loose.

"Penguins in their burrows will still detect the presence of dogs ... and could cause them to abandon their burrow and potentially their chicks and eggs," she said.

"We need to learn to live with them and not force them out."

Local ornithologist David Melville reinforced that perspective, saying that while the specific figures varied between studies, there was an "abundance of research" that showed that dogs negatively impacted seabirds.

Scott Burnett, Forest and Bird’s conservation manager for Te Tauihu, agreed.

"A lot of our birds around the Tasman coastline are international migratory birds. While they're here, they're trying to put on weight for the next journey. Every time they're startled into the air by dogs, that's precious energy that they’re expending, that's putting them under pressure."

A dog owner himself, Burnett said he understood the tension in prohibiting dogs from more beaches.

"But given the impact on our coastal birds, we think it's a necessary action."

If there was one point where most submitters agreed, it was that the council needed better signage about where dogs were and weren't allowed, and better enforcement of the rules.

That could be funded by raising dog registration fees, some submitters suggested.

Councillors on the hearing panel will deliberate on the proposed bylaw on October 16, with the final version to be voted on by the full council on November 28.

Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air 

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