The Southland District Council held a hearing on its dog control policy this week and residents of Stewart Island were vocal about the danger dogs living on the island or visiting the island presented to native birds.
Resident Anita Herbert said dogs were quite hard to police on the island and though there was no definite figure on how many dogs were brought to the island, it appeared to have increased.
"Research shows that dogs are a significant threat to kiwi elsewhere, particularly in Northland, and there are currently many areas in [Stewart Island’s principal settlement] Oban where dogs overlap with kiwi habitat. There have been incidents reported whereby dogs have killed kiwi in Oban," she said in her submission.
Visitors had a limited understanding of the risks their dogs posed to kiwi, and how to ensure kiwi were safe while exercising their dogs, she said.
Visitors lacked knowledge over where the designated dog areas were and how dog and kiwi locations overlapped.
There was also little knowledge of the reporting process if there was an incident involving a kiwi or any other dog-related incident.
The Stewart Island/Rakiura Community Environment Trust ran kiwi-avoidance programmes twice a year but did not have the ability to cater for people bringing their dog across to Stewart Island for a visit.
She also said dogs were no longer strictly pets but were a full part of family. They were used for mental health issues and wellbeing for family members and that meant they went everywhere the family did.
Trust member Shona Sangster said Stewart Island was a unique community where people and birdlife mixed.
There were 65 dog owners on the island at present, she said. The population of Stewart Island is about 400.
She said the island received more than 40,000 visitors a year and though they did not all have dogs even 10% of them would be a large number of dogs.
She said Stewart Island had penguins and brown nesting birds, which also needed to be protected.
The Stewart Island Community Board also made a written submission and said there was a concern about the number of dogs visiting the island.
The board said work should be done to find out exactly how many dogs were arriving, and what restrictions were possible.
