Eden tip’s customer service officer Jeanette Atkins said she has counted up to nine roosters over the past year.

“I name them all,” Ms Atkins said on Tuesday.

“The first was called Roger. He crowed all day long.

“But he’s gone now. I think we only have four or five left. Maybe the foxes get them. Maybe they kill each other.”

Manager of BVSC Waste and Recycling Toby Browne said the practice of abandoning animals is unacceptable, with owners responsible for unwanted animals being re-homed or “put down in a humane manner”.

“I assume they have just been thrown over the fence or someone has come on to the site when it’s been unattended and left them there,” Mr Browne said on Monday. 

An enclosure with food enticement is being trialed to recapture them, with their fate decided by the ranger service, Mr Browne said.

BVSC head ranger Chris Pearson said an increased use of infrared and motion-activated surveillance cameras will help bring law-breakers to justice.

“Under the Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Act - a legislation that is enacted by the RSPCA - it is an offence to abandon or dump an animal,” Mr Pearson said on Monday.

“Anyone caught doing it will be fined.”

Mr Pearson said it is hoped the abandoned animals will be re-homed if the trap and capture program goes well.

“We also have a sheep at the tip,” Mr Pearson said. “We’re not sure how it got there, but it seems to be surviving quite well.”

Customer service officer Jeanette Atkins has also seen the lone sheep, and believes it has been roaming the tip for at least two years.

“It hasn’t been shorn so it has a heavy wool coat, the poor thing,” Ms Atkins said.

“It might come into the enclosure, but I doubt it. It’s too used to running free. I think the best option is to tranquilize it.”

The BVSC intends conducting its trapping and removal of the unwanted animals in approximately two weeks time.