Domestic Pets in Wildlife Habitat Areas
Alec LeSher (author), Jonathan Rosenbloom & Christopher Duerksen (editors)INTRODUCTION
Pets such as dogs and cats provide companionship, security, and emotional support to millions of Americans. However, pets can also have a serious detrimental effect on wildlife populations and habitat. To combat these negative effects, local governments can adopt ordinances and standards that limit the level of exposure pets have to wildlife within sensitive wildlife habitats.
Typically, such provisions set standards for whether pets are allowed outside, when pets must be on a leash, if pets must be contained by a fence, or whether pets are allowed in certain areas at all. Ordinances may also specify penalties for violations, such as fines, further restrictions on pet movement, and/or a process for humanely euthanizing problematic pets. While the latter of these options may seem extreme, it is a last resort option that ensures pet owners take the regulations seriously and prevents needless wildlife deaths. Enforcement of these regulations is key, and often difficult. Local governments may be hesitant to impound offending pets or take owners to court. In such cases, it may be best to simply ban pets in areas near sensitive wildlife habitats.
EFFECTS
Cats, rodents, and dogs, in that order, are the top three mammals that are most detrimental to biodiversity.[1] Cats negatively affect the population of over 200 threatened or endangered wildlife species.[2] While cats are the most threatening to wildlife from a preservation and biodiversity perspective, cats can also be beneficial in that they kill an estimated 12.3 billion small mammals per year, including many undesirable rodents.[3] Unfortunately, at the same time cats also kill between 1.2 and 4 billion birds each year.[4] Notably, un-owned or feral cats cause a majority of these deaths.[5] However, an ordinance that prohibits owned cats from roaming outside and out of the control of an owner could significantly reduce needless avian deaths. Owned cats receive sufficient nutrition from their owners and only hunt because their natural instinct tells them to hunt not because they need to hunt to survive.[6]
Dogs are less deadly to wildlife than cats in terms of raw numbers but can disrupt or destroy wildlife habitat in other ways.[7] Most obviously, dogs, like domesticated cats, hunt animals even though they receive sufficient nutrition from their owners. Dogs have contributed to the extinction of at least eleven species worldwide.[8] However, even the mere presence of dogs can stress wildlife to the point that they abandon otherwise suitable and safe habitat.[9] For thousands of years dogs have helped humans hunt birds and game animals. As a result, many wildlife species have come to view dogs as an immediate predation threat.[10] Because of this natural response to the presence of dogs, even the act of walking a dog on a leash through a wildlife habitat has been shown to cause a significant reduction in wildlife biodiversity and abundance in the area.[11]
EXAMPLES
Teton County, WY
Teton County, located in western Wyoming, contains a portion of Yellowstone National Park, and is home to Grand Teton National Park. In order to maintain the valuable habitat areas in the region, the county implemented strong dog control regulations. First, the County designates unlicensed animals and dogs running at large as public nuisances.[12] This allows private citizens and the County to seek judicial redress for any damage caused by such animals.
Any animal over four months of age is also required to be licensed and dogs must wear a collar indicating license number whenever the dog leaves the owner’s property.[13] Violators may be subject to monetary fines, or the animal may be impounded at the expense of the owner.[14] Each time the animal is impounded, the owner must pay increasingly more costly fines up to one-hundred dollars per impound after the third such incident.[15] If the animal is impounded and not reclaimed by the owner after seven days then it is put up for adoption.[16] If the animal is not adopted within seven days, the County has the authority to humanely destroy the animal.[17]
Finally, the County may impound a dog if the dog is injuring or killing livestock or wildlife.[18] The Circuit Court for the County then determines if the dog poses a continued threat to livestock or wildlife.[19] If the Circuit Court finds that such a threat exists, the Court may order the dog to be either restrained or humanely destroyed.[20] The County also reserves the rights of landowners and peace officers to kill dogs that are currently engaged in injuring or killing wildlife.[21] When effectively enforced, these provisions work together to ensure that pet owners are held accountable for the harm that dogs cause and reduce the impact dogs can have on wildlife.
To view the provisions, see Teton Cty., WY, Teton County Animal Regulations § 1-2-1 to 1-6-4 (2014).
Snowmass Village, CO
The Town of Snowmass Village is home to many valuable big game species, such as elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep.[22] These species utilize protected habitat areas within the municipal boundary in order to survive harsh Rocky Mountain winters, reproduce, and permanently live.[23] To protect these habitats, the Town designates them with special zoning ordinances that focus on minimizing the impact development has on wildlife habitats.[24]
Among these regulations are provisions that ensure dogs do not deter big game species from residing there.[25] The Town expressly prohibits dogs within big game production, wintering, or concentration areas.[26] The only exception is for dogs that are part of a “bona-fide agricultural operation.”[27] Even in that case, the dog must be kenneled if it is within one-quarter mile of an elk migration corridor during the time when those animals are typically migrating across the jurisdiction.[28] This ensures that elk are not intimidated by dogs, and continue to use migration corridors that do not expose them to increased threat of predation or being hit by automobiles, thereby increasing the Town’s biodiversity.[29]
To view the provisions, see Snowmass Village, CO, Municipal Code § 16A-4-20 (f) (1) (f) (1998).
ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES
Estes Valley, CO, Development Code § 7.8 (G) (1) (f) (2005) (requiring that building applications in sensitive wildlife habitat areas be accompanied by a plan to control domestic animals and pets so they do not harass, disturb, or kill wildlife).
Caddo Parish, LA, Code of Ordinances § 8-37 (d) (1) (2016) (prohibiting any dog or cat from escaping an owner’s confinement and establishing penalties for animals running at large).
San Mateo Cty., CA, Code of Ordinances § 3.69.060 (i) (2017) (prohibiting dogs, cats, or other domesticated animals from entering a designated wildlife habitat area in order to protect the wildlife from unnecessary predation and stress).
CITATIONS
[1] Tim S. Doherty et al., Invasive Predators and Global Biodiversity Loss, 113 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 11261, 11262 (2016) (PDF available at: https://perma.cc/DF78-KAB2).
[2] Id. at 2.
[3] Scott R. Loss et al., The Impact of Free-Ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the United States, at 4 (2013) (PDF available at: https://perma.cc/ZN57-C2HN).
[4] Id.
[5] See id. at 2.
[6] See John S. Coleman et al., Cats & Wildlife: A Conservation Dilema, University of Wisconsin, https://perma.cc/ZGY5-7UVK (last visited June 26, 2018).
[7] See Doherty, supra note 1, at 11262.
[8] Tim S. Doherty, The Bark Side: Domestic Dogs Threaten Endangered Species Worldwide, The Conversation (May 1, 2017), https://perma.cc/D7TL-YTXF.
[9] Peter B. Banks & Jessica V. Bryant, Four Legged Friend or Foe? Dog Walking Displaces Native Birds, 3 Biology Letters 611, 612 (Sept. 4 2007).
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] Teton Cty., WY, Teton County Animal Regulations §§ 1-2-1 to 1-2-2 (2014).
[13] Id. at §§ 1-4-1 to 1-4-2.
[14] Id. at §§ 1-4-1 to 1-5-2.
[15] Id. at § 1-5-2.
[16] Id. at § 1-5-3.
[17] Id.
[18] Id. at 1-6-3 to 1-6-4.
[19] Id.
[20] Id.
[21] Id.
[22] See Snowmass Village, CO, Municipal Code § 16A-4-20 (a) (1998).
[23] See id. at § 16A-4-20 (e).
[24] See id.
[25] Id. at § 16A-4-20 (f) (1) (f).
[26] Id.
[27] Id.
[28] See id.
[29] See id. at § 16A-4-20 (f) (1) (a).