Spring's arrival has prompted calls for Lake Mac livestock owners to register their animals with Council to help reunite them if they escape or go missing.
Lake Macquarie City Council Manager Environmental Regulation and Compliance Derek Poulton said thousands of lambs, foals, piglets and chicks would be added to the city's livestock menagerie during the peak spring reproductive season.
"Registering them with us, as well as any existing animals on a property, means we're much better equipped to help track down their owners in an emergency," he said.
"That could be a natural disaster like a flood or bushfire, or it could simply be when an animal gets out and is roaming freely on a road or somewhere else in the community."
"Just last week we had a situation locally where two cows escaped and were walking down the road in New Lambton. We needed to find the owners because they were causing traffic obstructions and grazing in people's front yards."
"We had another incident in Dudley just after Thanksgiving Day last year where two turkeys turned up in someone's front yard, gobbling loudly, several kilometres from where they escaped."
Peta Shackleton, whose BBB Lodge at Cooranbong breeds horses and pigs, learnt the benefits of registration after her boar, Otis, burrowed beneath a fence and escaped last year.
"Otis was tagged, but adding him to the registration page meant that if Council rangers picked him up, they could read his tag and know where he came from," she said.
Livestock that should be registered with Council includes:
- Sheep
- Cattle
- Goats
- Pigs
- Donkeys
- Deer
- Alpacas
- Llamas
- 10+ emus or ostriches
- Bison
- Buffalo
Mr Poulton said that without widespread registrations, it was difficult to determine just how many head of livestock called Lake Mac home.
"But most people would be surprised by the large numbers in some parts of our city," he said.
"Most of our population is concentrated in the urban areas, but we still have quite a bit of rural land in our LGA home to a wide variety of farm animals."
The NSW Government requires any property with at least one head of livestock to obtain a property identification code (PIC), which is separate from registration with Council.
Council's registration process is free and simple, with an online form taking less than 10 minutes to complete.
Go to lakemac.com.au
