OMG - shocking story

That is dreadful, why have they been allowed to get in such a state.

All the horsey magazines are quick to criticise other countries such as Ireland about their neglect of horses, but no one seems to acknowledge the poor ponies left to starve in England.

I hope that someone helps these ponies, i will be willing to support a campaign to save them!
 
poor ponies. so sad that they have to suffer like that.

surely they know the names of everyone who has ponies on bodmin, they can fine every owner unless the owner can prove that their 'herd' are being cared for, reciepts for feed/hay, etc.
something needs to be done to stop the suffering.
 
So hard to read! Is this what a recession does? Takes us right back to natural selection? And we call ourselves civilised... I feel for the farmers too, it must be hard to survive on peanuts selling meat and milk to tesco so cheap with no other choice. The horses bring them very little. They would be damned if they culled them so what choice is there? That was a rhetorical question by the way.
 
What frustrates me is the lack of action - would I stand there and "monitor" a dying horse?

Surely it is irrelevent whether the owners can or can't be recognised. If the welfare agencies are aware of welfare issues then they should do something about it.

Raising funds with locals to provide at least a maintenance forage ration - or removing those for help that require it.
 
It's a sad state of affairs.

But what exactly is the problem here, is it lack of grazing? is it over breeding? or not shifting on enough ponies on (as in taking them to the sales to sell on to get some off the moors) or just general lack of care as in medication/worming etc due to hard times?

Is there any difference to the landscape now compaired to how it was many years ago? have the farmers always put out food for them in the past, are more ponies dying now than they did a long time ago, is it just natures way of natural selection?

Can't they control the numbers the farmers own?, less mares to left to breed willy nilly, therefore less foals produced, perhaps a cull is needed?

:confused:
 
How awful. But I am a little confused - they are native ponies, why are they so poor? Can we assume that they were given nothing when the snow was lieing on the ground and this has caught up with them now? We have not had that hard a winter and this is Cornwall not the Outer Hebredes??

Even when the snow was on the ground they should have been able to find something to eat?

Could it be worms or sickness?
 
Its just wrong. They obviously need to control the amount these farmers have to breed from. Its been a tough winter, all you can do is hope they live long enough to improve for the spring grass..
 
Not really native ponies, certainly no recognised breed (I live 20 miles from Bodmin Moor & cross it up to 5 times a week). These are hill ponies, often small, poor conformation & left to breed with no control. They roam a large area, many parts have no boundries, so ponies of different herds get mixed up making tracing owners hard. This would be a good case for (freeze?) branding, so they can be identified at a distance.

They are kept for profit, end of. If there are too many, they get shot, if they are ill, they get shot. If it will cost the farmer to feed them, they go without. The grass they live on is very poor, short & it's growing season was shortened by the early snows & freezing temperatures. These ponies are usually supplemented by hay in the winter (they are semi-feral, not wild). This year, with things such as fuel prices hitting so hard, the farmers will not make any profit on these animals at market so wont/cant feed them through the winter.

It is disgusting, they should intervene first & politics later as these animals are dying. It is about more than getting them through this winter, but long term breeding control is needed. Culling may seem a harsh option, but it has to be better than starving to death.
 
BonneMaman said:
How awful. But I am a little confused - they are native ponies, why are they so poor?

My youngster was bred on Bodmin moor. She was born to a irish draught mare but her sire has sadlers wells blood lines. She is very fine and there is no way she would be able to survive on the moor. Over the years i have noticed that the number of ponies have declined and the ones that are left are not native and are cross bred giving them less of a chance of survival. Even the shetland ponies are struggling this year.

We are getting harsher winters here and the last two winters have been bad due to snow. I have stopped walking my dogs on the moor as the sight of the ponies is so distressing and welfare organisations do nothing despite repeated complaining on a daily basis. The only ones that ever seem to help are SWEP but without the support from bigger authorities they do not have the powers.

I get fed up with people saying that could locals not lose the odd bale of hay and if everyone did this the ponies would have a better chance. Everyone is struggling at the moment and this would not solve the problem, the farmers would continue to get away with neglect!!
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Agree with you, not possible to loose the odd bale of hay. Peoplpe who say this have no concept of the inaccessibility of most of the moor or the basic problem. These ponies all belong to someone, they aren't wild. Catch them, treat them, then you will be close enough to identify them. SWEP are a fantastic local group who do far more than the bigger, wealthier organisations.
 
This is the problem with the passport laws it should have included all horses so that they all horses are micro-chipped and the owner of each horse can be identified.
 
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