The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is welcoming visitors to the State’s national parks to continue visiting in large numbers, but reminded them to leave their dogs at home.
Branch Director of Greater Sydney with NPWS, Deon van Rensburg said national parks visitors could help the local wildlife and avoid a $300 fine by using only designated dog exercise areas if they wanted to take their pets out.
“We are seeing lots of people using their local national parks for exercise, which is great, but please leave your dogs at home, as it is illegal to take your pets to these parks,” Mr van Rensburg said.
“These areas are also not a safe place for pets, especially with the largest-ever pest management program underway across New South Wales to help the State’s wildlife recover from the recent fires and drought,” he said.
“The NPWS pest management program aims to give native animals the leg up they need to recover and includes 1,080 poison baiting.”
Mr van Rensburg said the baits were lethal to domestic dogs, and pet owners should only use the legal, pet-friendly and safe dog exercise areas.
He said the NPWS pest management program targeted foxes and feral cats which accounted for the death of millions of native birds, mammals and reptiles, and were considered one of the biggest threats to wildlife recovery.
“Many animal and bird species such as little penguins and bandicoots have been driven to the brink of extinction on the NSW mainland by foxes, with pest management the only real effective tool we have to protect them,” he said.
“Domestic dogs can also harass and harm little penguins as they come ashore or in their nests.”
The Branch Director said dogs also posed a risk to koalas which had been sighted in the Ku-ring-gai and Royal National Parks.
“We all love our wildlife and our domestic pets, so making sure we protect them both is as simple as keeping our pets out of parks so our wildlife also has a safe haven to live,” Mr van Rensburg said.
