Culling wild ponies on Dartmoor

[baerben]

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15918295/The-woke-quango-wants-cull-wild-pony-Dartmoor-wont-speak-people-fighting-save-lives.html

AIBU to think this is horrendous? I have no agricultural background but as I understand it Natural England wants to protect bio diversity in the area and avoid overgrazing. Surely there must be a different way?

Bit weird how they’re labelled “wild ponies” yet they are branded, managed and sold by farmers.

Sounds more like livestock than actually wild animals.

I despise the human race when I hear things like this .

People need to question/ fact check what they read in the daily mail.

https://share.google/7GDb01W2hhSSoREWh

Me too.

It’s not true, though.

https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/09/dartmoor-ponies-clarification-of-natural-englands-role-and-position/

It’s a very disingenuous article. Natural England do not want to cull wild ponies. They simply pointed out that overgrazing (by sheep cows and ponies) causes damage. Farmers make money from sheep and cows do it is they that concluded that means the ponies need to go.

Well, well, that's not a choice is it, so slightly disingenuous too? Farmers have to make a living and it's not fair to put that choice on farmers. SURELY there must be another way.

Bear in mind though that Natural England (in my opinion) does not have the best interests of farmers or the landscape at heart. They want to prevent controlled moor burning which will mean more fires getting out of control, as we saw last summer.
The countryside is a factory and should largely be self-managed. Unless people with generations of knowledge rather than Masters degrees in hypotheses are included in these decisions the entire countryside will
soon be solar panels and wind farms with even less biodiversity than they claim that there is now.

Woke quango? Such daily mail bullshit

Sure, sure, it's typical DM journalism. The headline might be trashy but let's focus on the actual matter, which is the culling of wild ponies.

It's not true though, is it? Just a far right rage bait piece.

Can you see any contradictions in your statement?

A quick Google shows many news outlets carrying this story. It's not hard to get a balanced view rather than rely on the Daily Mail.

Same. We are a plague on the earth and cause nearly all the problems!!!

Without humans, wildlife would thrive and biodiversity would grow.

Which isn't going to happen according to that Natural England blog posted previously

And this is the problem with social media 🙄. A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.

Despite being told this isn’t true the OP is doubling down and given we know many posters don’t read beyond the headline this bollocks will be repeated ad nauseam.

THAT is what makes me despair of the human race 😩🙄🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️.

There is a difference between "Dartmoor Hill Ponies" and "Dartmoor Ponies"

Dartmoor Ponies are one of our native breeds and are considered at risk.

A Dartmoor "Hill Pony" refers to any unrecorded, semi-feral pony living on the open moorland, typically of mixed or unknown ancestry.

IMO the "Hill Ponies" should be controlled. They are often(not always) bred indiscriminately and sold cheaply. They are taking resources away from the native Dartmoors

What is your opinion on the many fires caused by swaling getting out of control, that we see every April?

And Dartmoor Hill ponies are what? Genuine question.

But they are not advocating culling wild ponies, so why focus on it?

I think sheep are more to blame across the country than horses. Even Shakespeare was writing about this in his plays, it’s nothing new. It’s because we removed all predators.

I mean, they are being controlled . There are far less ponies on the Moor than there were in the past. In addition, there's a lot of effort being put in to improve the breeding stock. The herd on Bellever Tor are a great example.

There's a kernel of truth in this story. Natural England want to reduce the amount of livestock grazing on the Moor, and have set a cap on numbers without differentiating between sheep, cows and ponies. Obviously, the farmers don't like the idea of a cap, so have devised the highly effective argument that if animal numbers are restricted, they will be forced to cull their ponies because they're less profitable than sheep and cattle, look what mean nasty Natural England are making them do, boo hoo 🙄

They think this will make Natural England rethink the cap. What I'm hoping it will do is make Natural England rewrite the policy to exempt ponies and instead strictly reduce the number of sheep, which are the ones actually causing the environmental damage. Bet the farmers will be pleased with that result 😆

The weirdest things can be turned into weapons in the culture wars, can't they.

Dartmoor Hill Ponies are semi feral ponies, They are the product of random ponies being turned out without management on Dartmoor. Those original ponies were likely poor quality/low value animals otherwise they would have been sold one way or another. No doubt you will get some farmers that are breeding quality animals, but there does need to be more control/regulation.

They are mixed breeds mongrels I am am not sure how a mixture of breeds and can rare endangered or extinct.

But the story isn't true, so there's nothing to concentrate on!