WILD dog experts claim "it's only a matter of time" before someone is killed by the animals who have lost their fear of humans and adapted to the urban environment.

Council announced last month it had started baiting wild dogs around rural properties near Hastings Point, Pottsville, Round Mountain and Cudgera Creek following wild dog and fox activity in the area.

The baiting program uses the tasteless and odourless poison known as 1080, which is commonly used to kill pest animals and has been criticised by PETA Australia for causing a "slow, agonising death".

Pet owners in the area have been warned by the council to keep their cats and dogs inside during the baiting period.

But wild dog expert Bill Crisp, of Tracs Wild Dog Management, says dog baiting is "a complete waste of time" as "dogs aren't interested in the baits, they're just trying to find a mate".

Mr Crisp was the wild dog trapper hired in 2015 to remove several problematic dogs in the Tweed, which forced the council to close beaches in Cabarita and Casuarina after a pet border collie was killed and an elderly walker stalked.

"People need to be aware of how bad these dogs are and eventually someone will be killed," he said.

"These dogs are losing their fear of people, they're evolving, in the last 10 years this problem has multiplied, they're running around relatively unchecked and they're getting more aggressive and have adapted to the landscape."

Mr Crisp said his trapping method, which involves using soft-jawed traps and a "dingo hybrid scent dog" to track and shoot the wild dogs, was the most effective way to remove the animals.

He said Local Land Services had "failed to get with the times" as "baiting isn't working".

"They continue to promote baiting but if it was working we wouldn't be having this conversation," he said.

"They could cover the entire coastline with trappers and solve the problem for a couple hundred thousand dollars, but instead they say trapping is too expensive."

Mr Crisp said the impact on both domestic livestock and family pets was "considerable".

"Once we roll into August and September there will be more livestock killed, calves mauled, koalas killed, bandicoot killed, these dogs are not killing for food, they're killing for fun.

"Around 95 per cent of a wild dog's diet on the North Coast is made up of native species. And then people are having their pets baited and they're gutted because they're losing family pets."

Mr Crisp said he had spoken with the office of the Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, as he wanted to see an inquiry into the issue.

But North Coast Land Services senior biosecurity officer Tony Heffernan said baiting was "the most economical approach" to killing the wild dogs.

"There's no dispute about that, we recommend trapping all the time but time is money and resources are low," he said.

"We accept some of the dogs die of old age."

Mr Heffernan agreed the dogs could potentially be harmful to people.

"I don't want to scare the community but these are wild animals and there's nothing to suggest under certain circumstances that they wouldn't attack humans," he said.

A spokesperson for Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said dog baiting "is the most effective method to control wild dogs".

"Wild dogs are a serious pest, attacking livestock and native animals, potentially spreading diseases and threatening human health, safety and wellbeing," they said.