Feral dogs pose a danger to native species, trampers and farm animals. Composite photo / NZME
The Department of Conservation has engaged sharp-shooting hunters to track down wild dogs in the Far North before the tramping season, which starts next month.
DoC was worried about the potential for trampers to be attacked while walking, given multiple sightings of feral dogs over the years.
There have been no confirmed attacks by feral dogs; however, five DoC walking tracks around the country have had wild dog warnings in place for periods since 2021.
NZ Herald premium content development deputy editor Hannah Brown told The Front Page she had spoken to a Far North farmer who said he and his neighbours had shot 90 feral dogs in three years to protect their farm animals, including five in the past eight weeks.
Wild dogs have also affected endangered wildlife around New Zealand.
Brown told the Front Page 124 kiwi have been killed or suspected to have been killed by dogs, including domestic ones, since 2018.
“A single dog can kill lots of kiwi in one night,” she said.
DoC told her penguins, seal pups and rare snails could also be vulnerable, she said.
DoC said the problem had been worst around Te Paki in the Far North, but had also extended to Whangārei in Northland and Te Urewera in the Central North Island as well as Taranaki and other remote areas at times.
The department was telling trampers to wield sticks in remote bush, and had hired people to track down and shoot the dogs for public safety.
“They are doing a sweep of the Far North ahead of the tramping season with hunters at the moment. So, they’re going through all those large tracts of bush to flush out any dogs,” she said.
However, there were limited options to tackle the problem.
“The legal options available are shooting dogs that are threatening wildlife like DoC is doing ... and farmers are allowed to kill the dogs on their own property if they are threatening them or animals. You can also humanely trap them legally,” she said.
She said farms that bordered on public land or forestry land could become targets for wild dogs, and farmers were having to get creative to tackle the issue.
“When this issue really blew up in 2021 there was a huge community effort to support farmers who were getting their stock killed at night by these dogs.”
“They did all sorts of things. They put a dog on heat in a cage to attract feral dogs onto the farm where they could be shot.
“The farmer caught a live feral dog as a Judas dog. They put a tracking collar on her hoping she’d go running with a wild pack that would enable them to find the pack. But she went off and lived by herself so that didn’t work.”
DoC told Brown it suspected the dogs are breeding in the bush - though this has not been proven - and it might be time New Zealand had a conversation about whether it should poison wild dogs like Australia does, or seek other methods, but that would require a law change and would need careful consideration of whether it would be humane.
“If anything of that nature was going to be tested here, it would need some political will. It would need a lot of groups to get together and collaborate on that like SPCA, DoC, MPI and it sounds like we’re miles away from that at the moment,” she said.
The SPCA also told Brown it was concerned about feral dogs - for the welfare of the dogs themselves, as well as their impact on native taonga species, and the risks they may pose to humans.
The SPCA said the most humane methods possible must be used.
“It’s really tricky even talking about this issue because we love our dogs, and we also love our wildlife,” Brown said.
Ultimately humans were responsible as some people weren’t looking after their pet dogs.
“If we don’t look after our domestic dogs we’re going to have these problems,” Brown said.
Listen to the full episode to find out more about how New Zealand could tackle the problem of stray dogs.
The podcast is presented by Susie Nordqvist, a former presenter and producer for TVNZ and Newshub. She began her career as a newspaper reporter and was a finalist for best newsreader at this year’s NZ Radio & Podcast Awards for her work at Newstalk ZB.
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