Don’t stray off the path! Here’s why it’s so important you stick to the footpaths and keep dogs on leads in the countryside – particularly in the spring.

As a nation of dog lovers, many of us enjoy walking our pets around the local fields, heathland and woodland. However, while we love our pets, we also need to be responsible and mindful of how they can seriously affect local livestock and wildlife, and why we need to keep to the footpath with our dogs on the lead, particularly in the springtime…

Spring breeding and nesting season

Local farmers say that the reduction of farmland birds in recent years, particularly ground nesting birds like lapwings (also known as peewits), is largely down to the general public and dog walkers who stray off footpaths and let their dogs run all over nesting areas. Dogs running all over fields also affects crops and other plant and insect life on the land.

According to Forestry England, this is also a key reason for the demise of other ground nesting birds such as nightjars, willow warblers, meadow pipits, and also affects wild birds such as pheasants, partridges and often even garden birds like dunnocks and blackbirds.

Equally, ponds, such as Yalden Spring on Limpsfield Chart, are now full of frogs and toads, frog spawn and soon, tadpoles as well as newts. So please don’t let your dogs career into these ponds at this very sensitive time of year. This is why Yalden Spring on Limpsfield Chart has been dead-hedged by the National Trust.

Woodland, such as Ridlands Grove, Limpsfield Common and High Chart are all areas that have ground nesting birds and also other wildlife such as deer, who often leave their young in “safe places” when they go off for food. The National Trust and other landowners have created footpaths around these areas, so please try stick to the designated footpaths and resist the temptation to go off-piste and trample through the middle of woodland.

Your safety and that of your pet

If you have a dog, it’s always best to keep it on a lead around cows and sheep.
Sadly sheep worrying has been an issue recently in Tandridge, so please keep your dogs on leads in any area where there is livestock, even if you don’t think your dog would chase them…All dogs have it in them to an extent!
Farmers are well within their rights to take serious action if they see a dog chasing their livestock, so it will give you peace of mind that you’re doing the best thing for your pet as well as the farm animals.

TIPS:

• Young cattle and cows with calves can also be quite aggressive around dogs.
• Try not to pass between and separate adult sheep or cows from their young. They may act aggressively to protect their lambs or calves.
• If you feel threatened by animals protecting their territory or young, don’t panic or run. Move to the edge of the field and, if possible, find another way round. If you are threatened by cattle or adult sheep, release the lead immediately so you can both get to safety separately.

Disease

Did you know that dog poo can spread deadly disease to farm animals as well as other wildlife? It’s important to clean up after your dog wherever you are – just bag it and bin it. We have dog poo bins all over the parish in most car parks and on major footpaths, but any public waste bin will do. Despite the bins, the area up near high chart car park is terrible at the moment. Don’t be one of those people who bags it and tosses it in the bushes…

It’s the Law

The law states that you must keep your dog on a lead no more than 2 metres long on open access land (areas like Limpsfield Common and Limpsfield Chart), unless you’re on a public right of way. This law applies between 1st March and 31st July – to protect ground-nesting birds and at all times around livestock

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam

There may be other local or seasonal restrictions, so look out for signs, but please remember that on local farmland and other privately owned land, such as the Glebe Fields, and areas of the Titsey Estate, you must only walk on the designated, marked public footpaths and not across any other parts of the land.

So please, this spring, if you are on our local fields, in woodland and on the common, keep your dogs under control at all times and preferably on the lead, even if you are on a designated right of way. It’s simply the safe and responsible thing to do.