Setting the record straight on Cockburn dog beaches

Recently Council adopted it’s Animal Management and Exercise Plan (AMEP). The five-year Plan proposes strategies to effectively manage growing dog and cat populations while balancing human amenity, the environment, and the needs of pet and non-pet owners alike. 

The creation of the Plan was a community-led process, driven by a series of community workshops, pop-up stalls, online and postal surveys, culminating in a Plan that reflects the community’s needs and sentiment for a wide range of animal related topics.

In the interest of accuracy, the City feels it is necessary to address recent social media posts and comments about specific actions within the Plan.   The use of coastal areas by dogs This City’s pristine coastline is a point of destination for many who live in Perth. Contrary to some social media posts and comments, roughly 40% of this coastline is available for dogs all year around. It is not the entire Cockburn coastline. The City prides itself on providing this level of access for dogs within the Perth metropolitan area.    Use of Microchip Scanners We anticipate the use of microchip readers around dog prohibited areas to occur in the later stages of the Plan. The overall intent is to monitor any trends and timings where dogs are entering these prohibited areas. The information collected by these devices will allow the City’s Rangers to patrol at times where breaches of the law are likely to occur. Technology such as this allows the City’s Rangers to patrol more effectively and identify dog owners who choose to do the wrong thing by taking their dog into a dog prohibited area.   Like many coastal areas, there are significant environmental considerations that need to be thought through before changing any beach usage. On the back of a Council request, the City engaged an independent environmental consultant to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment of Woodman Point.   The independent Environmental Impact Assessment found that:

Woodman Point is used by a variety of federally protected shore-nesting birds The birds prevalent at Woodman Point require safe foraging and roosting habitat within coastal areas to rest, feed and accumulate the energy resource required to successfully migrate back to breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere Disturbance to migratory shorebirds from dogs, people and other stimulus imposes a high energetic cost, potentially compromising the ability for the birds to build sufficient energy reserves for migration. While continued disturbance at a site can render the habitat unsuitable for future nesting, and The City would be required to seek federal approval to continue allowing coastal usage by dogs or we could be breaching the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

  Benefits of the Animal Management and Exercise Plan The AMEP proposes many initiatives to improve access to dog owners throughout the life of the Plan, these include, but are not limited to:

Providing a dog registration kiosk at events Providing solar-powered lights at dog parks, so owners have increased access to these dedicated facilities at night Increasing security around enclosed dog parks with the installation of Closed Circuit Television  Installation of a dog wash station at C. Y. O’Connor Beach Construction of two new dog parks, in Spearwood and Beeliar Improving existing enclosed dog parks by adding more sensory and training aids for pets and their owners to interact, and Provide off-leash access to some of the City’s largest Reserves and Parks when not in use by Sporting or School groups.For more information, read the AMEP opens in a new window, or the Minutes opens in a new windowof the 10 September Ordinary Council Meeting where the Plan was adopted by Council.