Sale may save ponies

Dartmoor ponies may be spared from a mass cull

A sale on Dartmoor on Monday could help prevent a mass cull of wild ponies.

The RSPCA had warned that up to 500 Dartmoor ponies could be slaughtered because foot-and-mouth regulations were preventing them from being sold.

The charity said killing them would be better than letting them starve or freeze to death on the moors during winter.

Half this year's Dartmoor pony sales have been cancelled, mostly because of foot-and-mouth restrictions.

Now Rendell's auction house in Chagford is going ahead with its annual pony sale.

It asked farmers to take only their best ponies to Monday's auction, in order to keep standards high and ensure better prices.

Many commoners cannot afford winter shelter

Ponies have been sold for as little as £1 in recent years.

Dartmoor Commoners' Council and the RSPCA have been planning the cull because many of those with grazing rights cannot afford to feed and shelter their animals.

The RSPCA said the plan was a "fall-back" if sales could not be arranged.

Dartmoor National Park Authority wants to cut pony numbers on the moor by reducing the number of stallions, and possibly introducing contraception.

'Morally wrong'

There had been fears that the historic autumn round-up of Dartmoor's 3,000 wild ponies - known as The Drift - would be halted by foot-and-mouth disease.

The Department for Rural Affairs (Defra) waited until August before allowing the centuries-old autumn tradition to go ahead.

The charity South West Equine Protection has said a cull would be "morally wrong".