Dartmoor hill pony cull feared

[HorseGuy]

New farming laws mean that Dartmoor Ponies are at risk of becoming extinct due to new culling rules.

How ironic that one of England's most famous wild animals which have lived and grazed on Dartmoor since the bronze age are now at risk of becoming extinct due to new 're-wilding' laws. This makes me so angry! Why do they have to meddle with everything? Can't they just leave nature alone?

 

[daveO]

Just to clarify. This isn't to do with any new rewilding laws but rather it's a consequence of decades of mismanagement by the Dartmoor Commons Council and various government bodies. Livestock have been allowed to degrade important wild areas and the lack of management has come back to bite them. As is typical these days though it will be spun to make the environmental campaigners look like the bad guys.

 

[Toddy]

Row over potential cull of Dartmoor hill ponies

Campaigners say requirements to cut livestock grazing could lead to a 90% cull of its hill ponies.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Buckshot]

I can't see this happening.
Can you imagine how popular any government would be if they culled horses?!

 

[nigelp]

We are an odd nation. Lose our minds when ponies are potentially going to have numbers restricted (they could just take the ponies out of the sheep category for grazing) but think nothing of killing millions of chickens, cows and pigs each year.

 

[HorseGuy]

Row over potential cull of Dartmoor hill ponies

Campaigners say requirements to cut livestock grazing could lead to a 90% cull of its hill ponies.

www.bbc.co.uk

That link explains the situation much more clearly than the one I shared (now removed as yours is better).

 

[HorseGuy]

I can't see this happening.
Can you imagine how popular any government would be if they culled horses?!

Yes is would be an instant vote loser for any government which doesn't step in to stop it happening. That one fact gives me hope for the ponies future.

 

[daveO]

I can't see this happening.
Can you imagine how popular any government would be if they culled horses?!

It's important to clarify that the government hasn't proposed any kind of cull. They've just told the DCC to comply with the current regulations regarding land management. The farmers are saying that they may have to cull the horses to prioritise other types of livestock. Horses are less damaging than sheep in grazing terms but are less profitable (depending on how you value these things).

The Government are legally required to reverse the decline in biodiversity in this country by 2030. People will have to realise at some point that we're seeing radical actions being taken because biodiversity has gone off a cliff edge and we're a lot closer to some very worrying impacts from that than they think. The majority of people I speak to don't seem to realise how bad things are and what needs to be done to stabilise things let alone reverse the problem.

 

[HorseGuy]

We are an odd nation. Lose our minds when ponies are potentially going to have numbers restricted (they could just take the ponies out of the sheep category for grazing) but think nothing of killing millions of chickens, cows and pigs each year.

I'm mostly a vegetarian although I do eat lots of fish and the occasional bit of pork so I'm well aware of my own self-hypocrisy here. However I did stop virtually all meat some years ago because the way many of the animals bread for food are treated makes be feel uncomfortable.

 

[daveO]

Just to back this up a bit, the official data says that only 62% of SSSIs are in favourable condition or are on their way back to being favourable after being assessed as degraded from their original designation. That can mean that there is a management plan in place to repair them but not necessarily that action is underway. The other 38% of some of our most important biodiversity sites are failing to meet that 2030 deadline at the moment.

 

[Woody girl]

Many years ago, (1980s) I used to help a lady called Sylvia rescue ponies from the dartmoor pony sales. Most of them used to go for for meat. Many were healthy animals, and we used to break them in, and find homes either as riding ponies or companions to other horses.
They realy don't need to be culled.
We have ponies here on exmoor and they are not a problem, as they have been properly managed for years. No culling happens.
The problem is the farmers mixing breeds, watering down the native dartmoor pony stock, which is no longer a pure breed, and not bothering to manage them properly.
They get money for pony meat. They are realy often treated worse than cattle and sheep. Ignored most of the year untill round up, pony sale for dog food, and cash in pocket, having done very little to look after them all year. Not everyone of course, but many do.
Why else let a little Shetland pony run wild on exmoor? Kids outgrew it, bung it in with the wild herd and problem solved. Cash in pocket with no effort, or vet and feed costs. I've seen it.