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As a very amateur birdwatcher, I’ve been exploring a recently created wetland nature reserve near my house to see some of the bird life it is attracting, like cormorants, little grebes, and magnificent, dazzling kingfishers.
I should start by stressing that I’ve nothing against dogs. I’ve owned a dog in the past and plan to get another. Dogs can bring much joy to our lives.
One of dogs’ biggest environmental impacts is on animals and plant life around ponds, streams and rivers.
But for the birds, small mammals and insect life, a dog’s arrival is as alarming and destructive as we would find an elephant charging through a campsite.
Obviously, my own pleasure in birdwatching doesn’t outweigh someone else’s pleasure from walking their dog.
A second effect comes from dogs’ flea treatments, which are often applied directly to their skin, and so can run off into the water, killing insect life. “Residues of drugs found in many of these treatments have been detected in water in several studies,” said Will Wilkinson, a lecturer at the University of Surrey.
Fewer insects and other invertebrates will then have knock-on effects up the food chain, reducing the number of wildfowl and other animals that the water body can support.
It’s not clear which causes the greater harm, the flea treatments or the physical damage. That matters, because it affects which steps we should take to limit the damage, said Dr Naomi Ewald, a freshwater biologist at the Freshwater Habitats Trust.
How dog owners can help
In this experiment, half the pond (on the left) was closed off to dogs (Photo: Freshwater Habitats Trust)
If flea treatments are the main problem, then dog owners could do a lot to help by switching to tablets instead of skin ointment. Dog owners can also discuss with their vet if they could switch to treating their pet only if needed, rather than constant monthly treatments, said Wilkinson.
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That doesn’t mean dogs should be barred from all water, said Dr Ewald. The Trust advises public bodies to make “sacrificial ponds”, where possible, designed for dogs to have fun in.
At my local wetlands, the compromise is a fence around the new ponds, but the rest of the stream is still available for dogs to swim in.
I really don’t believe in demonising dog ownership (as long as people pick up their dog poo!) and if the new wetlands are to thrive, they need broad community support. That means encouraging as many people as possible to start appreciating the new resource.
I’ve been reading
High finance is area of life I feel very underinformed about, so I’ve been enjoying a book called The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson, a former financial trader who has a YouTube channel called Garys Economics.
Stevenson started out from the bottom, so as he describes his education in the world of finance, it is helping me learn too.
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