Try as I might, I cannot think of an animal welfare issue that is more misunderstood than the survival of Dartmoor ponies. Every maddening misconception about land management and every un-intended consequence of animal rights sentimentality is encapsulated in the sad reality of why the ponies will be culled in greater numbers than ever from this autumn, because the government has messed up the issue even more than usual.
The latest disaster to befall Dartmoor is the conflating of ponies with sheep and cattle by Natural England to produce a total number of grazing animals allowed on Dartmoor. Because sheep always sell for good money because people eat them, and ponies don’t (because people don’t and horse riding is sadly not the predominant pastime of this country anymore), farmers will choose to keep sheep and not ponies (yes, the ponies are owned) and the pony herds will be drastically reduced, to the horror of ramblers and nature buffs.
These ponies, the official emblem of Dartmoor, have been categorised as livestock no different to a cow
To read the gushing outrage, what animal lovers are asking is for farmers to keep herds of ponies on Dartmoor for no financial gain, so that visitors can look at them and say: ‘Ahh!’ Worse, Natural England is denying it has ‘ordered’ a cull, in a cowardly attempt to deflect from the reality of what will undoubtedly result from its arbitrary and ill-informed grazing limits.
