Plea from Wildlife Trust – Please Control Your Dogs

Published on: 1 Mar, 2025
Updated on: 4 Mar, 2025

Dogs should be on leads in nature reserves say SWT. Wikimedia

By Esme Campbell

Dog owners are urged to keep their pets under control to protect local wildlife.

Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the Dogs Trust are encouraging dog owners to be respectful of wildlife when visiting nature reserves, by keeping pets on leads and cleaning up after them.

Ground nesting skylark singing. Malcolm Fincham

Spring and summer bring ground-nesting season and the arrival of many migratory species along with it. Keeping dogs on leads is paramount to avoid disrupting ground-nesting birds such as skylarks and nightjars, which are vulnerable to disturbance between March and August. Unsupervised dogs may harm chicks or cause birds to abandon their nests, so keeping them under control is vital to protecting these species.

Even the most well-behaved dogs can cause distress to wildlife simply through natural curiosity. Birds view dogs as predators, so allowing them to roam freely can damage important nests and put bird populations at risk of decline.

Bags of dog excrement should be disposed of properly, not left to litter the countryside.

Encouraging owners to clean up after their pets also ensures the reserves remain in good condition and helps to protect conservation grazing animals.

Dog faeces can contaminate soil with unwanted nutrients and presents a health risk to people and animals. This includes the cows and sheep that are essential to promoting a balance of vegetation across many reserves, including Chobham and Whitmoor Commons.

James Herd, director of Reserves Management at Surrey Wildlife Trust, says: “We want everyone to enjoy Surrey’s fabulous wild places, and dog walkers with under-control dogs are always welcome on our sites. But as well as being illegal to disturb nesting birds, it’s good practice to minimise the impact your canine friends have on all wildlife.

“Keeping your dogs under control and making sure you clean up behind them keeps sensitive habitats safe from damaging disturbance and dangerous diseases like Neosporosis, which poses a serious risk of aborted pregnancies in our conservation grazing animals. Sadly, we’ve seen this twice already in the spring 2025 calving period.”