Coastal Voices Guest Opinion: Don’t let pets chase wildlife

The light was spectacular and the birds were having a good old time preening and resting.  All was idyllic — if a bit chilly — until two women accompanied by two little girls and two unleashed dogs arrived.

The dogs gleefully plowed into the flock, scattering the birds to the wind.  One of the little girls exclaimed, “Oh, it’s so pretty!” As the birds attempted to settle elsewhere on the flats, the dogs relentlessly kept them airborne.

When I suggested to the women that perhaps they shouldn’t be letting their dogs do that, they said it wasn’t illegal. Well, that was true, but only barely. The pelicans had been taken off the Endangered Species List only six days earlier; until that time, such activity would have violated the Endangered Species Act and been punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and a year in prison.

Of course, these folks didn’t know that, so it wouldn't have stopped them anyway.

Unfortunately, there is no law protecting unlisted animals from harassment and no one enforcing or educating the public about most of the conservation laws that do exist.

She continued with the seemingly irrelevant argument that mountain lions do the same thing. I think the point she was trying to make is that predation is a natural phenomenon and as “nature lovers” we should embrace it.

I hear this argument a lot from pet owners who allow their pets to harass or kill wildlife. Yes, predation by native predators is a natural, necessary, and, in its way, beautiful phenomenon.  The key word here is native. Native predators, by and large, occur at low densities and kill only to survive.  Predation in its natural state helps keep prey populations in check. We all understand that now (though it wasn’t always so).

But we have upset that balance. Predators in the form of our cats and dogs occur at far higher densities than any native predator; hunt even when they’re not hungry; and apply their predation pressure on top of, not instead of, that applied by native predators.

Among the innumerable obstacles we have imposed upon wildlife, unrestrained pets are among the least necessary and the most preventable. The right of pets to run free simply does not trump the right of wildlife to exist in peace, pets that chase and kill wildlife are not “cute,” and the sight of hundreds of animals fleeing in terror and prevented from getting the rest they need is not “pretty.”

What a shame that these women chose to entertain their children and their dogs at the expense of the hundreds of birds resting on the beach that day and of other people who had been enjoying watching them. I hope they read this and think twice next time.

Ken Burton lives in Arcata and is president of the Redwood Region Audubon Society.