Bodmin Ponies

[ecb89]

Poor poor ponies. I know this winter has been horrible but there is no need for this to have happened.

*Contains very upsetting images*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ezing-spring-weather-dumped-cruel-owners.html

 

[RockinRudolph]

Good god those photos are horrific! Poor poor ponies, what a shame. :-(

 

[Britestar]

My 1st pony was a Bodmin Moor pony. Running free till she was 2 then rounded up and sold. At that time they all had ear tags, like the ones cows have, to ID the owners.
Sad for these po's.

 

[mightymammoth]

I saw this earlier and it made me sick to my stomach, where will it end? when will the authorities intervene in a meaningful way?

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Another instance of inbreeding/overbreeding over many years; and "owners" who don't give a fig, just like the Dartmoor ponies basically.

They've allowed both breeds to become inbred by runt mares/stallions running on the moors, which has produced poor little weed ponies which no-one wants. This has happened since the 1960's if not before. The ponies are not of the right quality for riding, they are far too small anyway, plus the fact that because of their inbreeding they will have conformation defects. So they are basically unsellable.

Contrast the Exmoor pony; which has been more carefully managed and hasn't been allowed to inbreed like this.

Personally I think the kindest thing to do would be to eithier round them up and destroy them humanely, and/or employ some marksmen and shoot them - for humane reasons if nothing else. If they are out on the moors and no-one is caring for them, surely that is the kindest thing to do???

 

[meandmyself]

Far better a quick bullet than letting them starve to death.

 

[Maesfen]

Totally agree with a mass cull; all of them and the Dartmoor Hill ponies too with no exceptions. With the amount of animals on the moors and commons (with the exception of the Exmoor, which is as you say, tightly controlled) they have decimated any keep which surely would be better kept and managed for the native ponies that have 'rights' to the grazing. Get it back to the registered natives and then there would be enough keep for them year round. It might also teach those that have abandoned their ponies a lesson that they can't just discard them without there being consequences and hit them where it hurts, their pockets.

 

[tango'smum]

i know one farmer that breeds these ponies for meat, they get sent over to irland....

 

[Natch]

When the h*** will the message get through to stop over production?!