💔 THIS IS HEARTBREAKING. COULD DARTMOOR TRULY LOSE ITS PONIES? 🐴📉
A devastating warning has been issued by campaigners who fear that up to NINETY PERCENT of Dartmoor’s iconic semi-wild hill ponies could completely disappear from the moorland.
Over 23,000 people have already signed an emergency petition demanding action to protect them.
New rules drawn up by Natural England mean that grazing limits across the moors are being slashed. But here is the catch: campaigners say the famous ponies are being lumped into the exact same livestock quotas as commercial cattle and sheep.
Because they are competing for the same reduced space, it's feared farmers will be forced to remove the ponies to make way for more financially viable livestock.
The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association warns that numbers have already plummeted from 7,000 to just 900 in the last 25 years. They are already listed as an officially endangered native breed. Campaigners warn that once they are gone from the moor, they are gone forever.
Natural England says they want to ensure "optimal numbers" remain and that ponies are vital for restoring the landscape—but officials confirm they must be included in the total livestock count.
Dartmoor simply wouldn’t be Dartmoor without the ponies. Do you think it’s fair to treat these historic animals the same as farm livestock?
📸 Ben Ivory / Getty Images
Utterly disgusted to see Croudace Homes wilfully clearing mature trees and hedgerows in Shenfield during the height of the breeding season. Century old oaks hosting nesting birds and other wildlife have been felled. We need to place more value on our natural environment.
The Somerset Farmhouse of 1 North Street, Williton were approached by a "food influencer" that wanted to charge them £2,000 for a review.
They put out a video of Sally eating a sausage roll instead 😆.
Lets make Sally and the Somerset Farmhouse famous for free.
Great to see so many flowering roadside verges on main roads like this near #Skibbereen in #Ireland and so many bees amongst flowers. We could learn from this in England and Wales where many verges are still getting the scalped treatment when in flower @DefraGovUK@Irishwildlife
@Feargal_Sharkey@STAUNCHcampaign We have to take water back to public ownership. Nothing is more important than clean water, clean air and clean food systems… it’s the basic essentials our government should ensure for us, and for other creatures great and small.
A building in Dorking, Surrey, has been demolished, and with it, what may have been the largest known Swift colony in the area.
Please sign the petition. Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner must hold the police to account for failing to protect Swifts - https://t.co/p8rUfrSOLx
Clarion Housing destroyed an active swift colony by demolishing a building early, breaching the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Tell the Surrey Police crime commissioner to enforce the law 👉https://t.co/cZqGFTt3uc It’s #worldswiftday but no one gives a monkeys.
Up to 22 Swift nests were destroyed during demolition works carried out by Northeast Demolition UK on behalf of Hill Group and Clarion Housing. Conservationists have described this as a significant wildlife crime. Surrey Police had been warned that Swifts were actively nesting.
This report on the BNG loopholes effecting deprived areas more reminded me of this video I made a year ago after an interaction with a stranger at my local nature reserve. Don’t let property developers convince us that enjoying nature is selfish.
Governments tell us to cut eating red meat to ‘save the planet’ while they ram through hundreds of massive data centres that consume vast amounts of energy and water…
Nature is not a luxury it’s a need, and our poorest communities are being effected the hardest. 4/5 applications in deprived areas will lose all nature compensation if Labours plans pass. Fighting for nature is a social justice issue. https://t.co/NRj3mLaWo5