After watching his "best friend" suffer a traumatic death, David Palmer is pushing for more signage around parts of a popular South Coast beach to warn visitors and residents of poisonous bait along the nearby National Park.
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The Dee Why resident took his four-year-old kelpie Slinky for one of their usual walks along Seven Mile Beach on November 1 after visiting his partner in Bomaderry.
David said like many, he parked at the Shoalhaven Heads Surf Club carpark and walked to the off-leash section from there.
Slinky ran freely across the beach, sometimes towards the top of the bank, but was never out of David's sight. At one stage, David noticed Slinky got distracted by a large branch on the beach.
"She was there for quite a few minutes, I kept walking for about 2-300 metres and blew the whistle and she came," David said.
"But she went back again. It was just kind of out of character that she spent as long as she did at that spot."
On the drive back to Dee Why, things went south. Slinky threw up in the car, and when she returned home, was shaking and continued to vomit bile.
"I rushed her to the vet hospital ... they sedated her and the seizures kept on going," David said.
"They said she basically didn't have a chance, she was virtually brain damaged.
"I'll never be able to get rid of those images from my mind. Words can't describe how horrific it was."
It's like she was possessed. The noises she was making was awful.
- David Palmer
David has called for increased signage warning those who walk their dogs of the 1080 baits used in the National Park, which backs onto the beach.
He has since returned, and said he found one sign warning of the baits at the carpark entrance, and another sign on the shore facing away from the beach.
"My partner has spoken to a lot of people with adventurous dogs who run there ... My aim is to enable people to become aware of that risk," he said.
"The fact there's an off-leash dog area that joins a baiting area, without fencing, is unusual."
A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson said the baits are part of an ongoing feral animal control program using meat and manufactured baits, containing 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) poison, which is lethal to cats and dogs.
"A large part of this control program is deploying 1080 baits, a well-refined technique widely used by land managers to control feral foxes and wild dogs," the spokesperson said.
"1080 is a naturally occurring toxin found in over 30 Australian plant species that is particularly lethal to foxes and wild dogs, yet marsupials, birds and reptiles have a much higher tolerance to this pesticide.
"Failure to bait will result in more foxes and fewer native animals, including threatened species."
Domestic pets must be restrained in the vicinity of a baiting location and are not permitted in NSW National Parks.
The spokesperson added all baiting locations are identifiable by signs.
However, David said signage should be made clearer as he believes bait could have made its way onto the beach near the branch Slinky hovered by.
"I've heard that baits are buried but that foxes and dogs can dig them up and rather than eat them, they can put them somewhere else. It may have been on the beach," he said.
The feral animal control program will continue until December 16.
Symptoms of 1080 poisoning include vomiting, disorientation, and shaking, followed by death.
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
