TWO rogue cows that escaped and caused traffic chaos in New Lambton have prompted calls for owners to register livestock and newborns with council heading into the busy spring season.
Thousands of lambs, foals, piglets and chicks are expected to be added to menageries across Lake Macquarie during the peak reproductive period.
Lake Macquarie City Council's (LMCC) manager of environmental regulation and compliance, Derek Poulton, said registering animals would help reunite them with their owners if they escaped or went missing.
"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."
He said there was a situation last week 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," Mr Poulton said.
"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's BBB Lodge at Cooranbong breeds horses and pigs, and she learnt the benefit of registration after Otis the boar burrowed under 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.
Sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, donkeys, deer, alpacas, llamas, bison buffalo and packs of 10 or more emus or ostriches should be registered with council.
Mr Poulton said that without widespread registrations, it was difficult to determine just how many head of livestock called Lake Macquarie home.
"But most people would be surprised by the large numbers in some parts of our city," he said.
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, with an online form on LMCC's website taking less than 10 minutes to complete, a spokesperson said.
