Owners urged not to activate personal locator beacons for their dogs

Trampers and hunters are being urged to not to activate personal locator beacons for their dogs.

Maritime New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre confirmed a few dogs were rescued each year after their owner activated a beacon.

Its operations manager Mike Clulow said whenever a beacon was used, specialist rescuers including helicopters and expert volunteers were sent by the centre.

“These are a valuable and limited resource, and while we understand dogs are important to their owners, it is equally important that rescue resources are available to respond to people whose lives may be at risk,” he said.

“Rescue operations in remote locations and difficult terrain put responders at risk, which we manage very carefully in the interest of saving people's lives.”

Activating a personal locator beacon should be limited to when someone was in distress and needed urgent help, he said.

Instead, he encouraged people who took their dogs into the wilderness to develop a plan around what they would do if something went wrong.

“We strongly discourage using a PLB as a mechanism to request transport of injured pets to a location where they can be assisted,” he said.

Animals had been recovered in some instances when distressed or injured people were being rescued, but he said it was done on a case-by-case basis.

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