Dartmoor foals and ponies - their current plight

It's April, and the first foals of 2011 are being born on Dartmoor, much to the delight of the visiting tourists - BUT plans are already in place for foals to be shot, and then either incinerated or used for zoo meat once the tourist season is over.

These foals are victims of mass overbreeding of ponies on Dartmoor. More than 1,000 unwanted "Hill" ponies have been slaughtered since the 2010 autumn round-ups, and culling is still taking place. Foals, pregnant mares and colts (young male ponies) have been slaughtered on farms and then either incinerated or processed for zoo meat. This has been set up as a "sustainable welfare scheme" by a pony association whose breeders refuse to remove stallions to stop the breeding of unwanted ponies. South West Equine Protection does not support this scheme. We believe the truly sustainable answer to this problem is to remove stallions from the moor to stop the breeding of unwanted foals.

Responsible pony keepers, and breeders of "Heritage" and purebred Dartmoor ponies, have already removed their stallions from the moor and taken steps to ensure that no unwanted foals are born. In The New Forest in Hampshire, which is another area where wild ponies roam, there is already a scheme in place where ALL the stallions have been removed from the Forest and they are kept off the Forest for 11 months of the year.




South West Equine Protection (SWEP) is a registered charity based on Dartmoor. We help moorland equines that are abandoned or suffering from neglect and cruelty. As well as running our rescue centre, we campaign on important issues that affect the welfare of moorland ponies. We need your support to ensure that ALL the moorland stallions are removed from Dartmoor in order to stop the needless annual mass slaughter of unwanted ponies. Visit our website: www.swep.org.uk

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Dartmoor
• pony
• foal
• slaughtering
• culling
• killing
• ponies
• tourists
• SWEP
• South
• West
• Equine
• Protection