The Alaska Department of Transportation is chasing birds away from the Skagway airport runway. To do so they are using loud noises, and some local dogs are scared. But, there is a dog solution to these dogs’ problem.
Seagulls and arctic terns are gathering in large numbers near the Skagway airport. Some terns are nesting on the runway. This poses a risk to aircrafts, and the Department Of Transportation is using loud noises to chase them away. Explosions. This is causing much distress to the local dogs.
Selmer-Moseley: “I have received numerous enquiries about people asking what to do because their dogs are terrified.”
Katherine Selmer-Moseley is the president of the local Paws and Claws animal shelter.
Selmer-Moseley: “I know that there are definitely better alternatives to what they are doing that would be better for the community as a whole, for the animals and the humans.”
Dapcevich: “Hopefully we can get that dog walking nest flagging operation back. And then that should reduce the amount of pyrotechnics needed.”
Sam Dapcevich is a spokesman for the DOT. He is referring to a program that was in place during the pandemic. Volunteers received a safety vest and some training, and went to walk their dogs through the bird colony at the edge the airport. The dogs and people would scare the birds away, and they would stay away.
Dapcevich: “It did a pretty good job and we didn’t have much need for the noise making devices during the pandemic as a result, but now that the tourism has come back into full swing and most people are back at work in Skagway, this year they haven’t been doing that.”
Dapcevich says the lack of volunteers coincides with an unusually large numbers of birds. And they are getting habituated to the sound of explosives. A few days ago the airport staff had to use their noise maker upwards of fifty times, as the birds wouldn’t stay away.
This level of noise creates a lot of anxiety for dogs in the neighborhood. Many dogs are running away, hiding, they are confused and scared. Last week one dog panicked and jumped out of a car, and ran on the road until he was hit by another car. The dog did not survive.
There are now talks of resuming the volunteer program. When asked why DOT should rely on volunteers to assure the safety of commercial aircraft, Dapcevich said the department does not have the resources to pay for such a program. If volunteers do not step up, airport staff will continue using the noise makers.
In a recent social media post, Selmer-Moseley said she was talking with a local DOT worker about reviving the program. In the meantime, she offers some advice to help dogs cope with the noise.
Selmer-moseley: “Of course every dog is different, you can try putting cotton balls in their ears to muffle the sound, people have tried thunder shirts.”
She is referring to a dog coat that wraps tightly around the animals, hugging them. This allegedly has a calming effect.
Selmer-Moseley: “You can use relaxing massage techniques, if your dog is young you could start desensitizing them to noises like that. At low levels and build up from there, creating a positive association, usually by feeding them treats or playing with them.”
But Selmer-Moseley says sometimes there is not much that can be done. In those cases, she advises contacting a veterinarian to get appropriate medications to help. She says loud noises can really affect a dog’s quality of life.
California wine country uses loud speakers broadcasting aggressive preditory bird sounds on an uneven time schedule to keep the grapes safe.
Loud noises indicate the use of propane cannons. Birds typically habituate to the same repetitive sound, The Airport Bird Wailer offers another alternative:
The Airport Bird Wailer is not a ‘scare’ type system relying on loud noises but instead creates a ‘no fly’ zone using the sweeping / rotational surround sound effect. The Wailer is unlike any other audio system in that (geographic) species specific alarm / distress / predator /aggressive electronic / mechanical sounds move electronically from the Master Unit to the 4 Remote Speakers at irregular intervals and at variable lengths of time. This unique feature lessens habituation to the ‘same sound, same speaker’ syndrome, and virtually eliminates the human labor factor, computer ‘interfacing’, vehicle mounted speakers, etc. The Wailer is a ‘plug and play’ system, arrives pre-programmed and ready for use.