Dog owners don’t follow the rules on beaches

A STUDY has found Victoria’s laws for dogs on beaches are failing, with as many as eight in 10 people disobeying the rules in some cases.

The joint Deakin University-BirdLife Australia study, to be published soon, surveyed 69 beaches across the Victorian coastline from Mallacoota to Portland and found non-compliance was putting endangered wildlife at risk.

Researchers evaluated compliance with four different regulations: no dog zones, seasonal leash access, time restricted leash access, and dogs on leash at all times.

Compliance varied between the different types of regulations, with the best in “no dog” zones with 18 per cent non-compliance, but the worst in “on leash at all times” zones with 79 per cent non-compliance.

Co-author Associate Professor Mike Weston, from Deakin’s Centre for Integrative Ecology within the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, said many pet owners just did not understand why it was a problem to have their dog off leash.

“Maybe they’re just not aware of the damage that dogs can cause to the environment, or because people have close personal relationship with their dogs they want their dogs to have free exercise and they see that as harmless.

“It doesn’t help that it’s often not clearly articulated why these restrictions are in place at some beaches.

“While these can be regulations to avoid conflicts with other beach users, it’s also about protecting native wildlife, particularly over spring and summer when birds are breeding.”

He said most Victorian beaches were open to dogs, so it was important that rules were followed when they were in place.

“We need to change the way we think about how we have dogs on beaches,” he said.

“People often say it’s other dogs that kill wildlife, not theirs; or they think their dog is just having fun chasing birds. But even chasing has a very real effect on birds.”

Photographs gathered in the course of the research include images of dogs chasing birds, dogs crushing and eating nests, and young birds being killed by dogs.

Associate Professor Weston said he and his collaborators would continue to look at ways of improving compliance.

“More education, more awareness and better signage on beaches is needed, and part of that is getting serious about enforcing compliance too.”