Dartmoor's hill ponies have grazed those commons for longer than there has been a country called England. Fewer than a thousand are left, down from six thousand a generation ago. The United Nations listed them as endangered in 2023. So, naturally, the body charged with protecting nature has decided to get rid of nine in ten of the survivors.
There is a process, obviously.
Natural England's new grazing contracts now count the ponies in the same bucket as the cattle and sheep. A commoner with a fixed quota has a choice: keep a semi-wild pony worth nothing at market, or use the slot for a lamb he can sell. Guess which one survives the spreadsheet. The rest are gathered in the autumn drifts, and with nowhere to put thousands of unhandled moorland ponies, the next stop is the abattoir.
Natural England would like it noted that it has not ordered a cull. It has merely built a machine whose only output is a cull, switched it on, and handed the bolt gun to a farmer so the fingerprints land elsewhere. Very tidy.
And now the funny part. The pony is the best tool on the entire moor for eating Molinia, the coarse purple grass strangling Dartmoor into a brown monoculture. Cattle and sheep won't touch it. The ponies hoover it down and clear the ground for the orchids, the wildflowers and the insects behind them. Remove the ponies and the moor chokes into precisely the lifeless scrubland the contract was meant to prevent.
So the conservation strategy, in full: protect the habitat by deleting the animal that maintains the habitat. A masterclass.
Better still, Natural England's own Fursdon review looked at this exact question and told them, in plain English, not to lump ponies in with cattle and not to cut pony numbers. They read it, praised it, said they fully supported it, then did the precise opposite.
Four thousand years these animals have run Dartmoor with no committee and no contract. They could be gone within one, and the people who did it will write it up as a win for nature.
The UK rape gang inquiry report just dropped and it should make your blood boil:
1. At least 250,000 young White girls were groomed, raped, trafficked, and tortured.
2. Perpetrators followed consistent tactics of befriending vulnerable girls as young as 11 with gifts, drugs, and alcohol before subjecting them to group rapes, violence, blackmail, pregnancies, forced conversions, and trafficking.
3. UK institutions—including police, social services, schools, NHS, and politicians—catastrophically failed victims through denial, ignored reports, criminalization of victims, destruction of evidence, and prioritization of political correctness and fears of “racism” accusations over child protection.
4. 87–95% of convicted perpetrators in group-based child sexual exploitation cases were Muslim. It was predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs. They operated across 149 local authority districts. Groups from Somali,
Iranian, Syrian, Turkish, and other Muslim origins were also involved.
5. The Muslim perpetrators operated under an honour- and
shame-based clan code that treated non-Muslim girls, especially White working class girls, as property available for sexual use. Girls were told that they’re “White trash” who deserved punishment.
People need to go to prison for this.
In my 25+ years advocating for better treatment of farm animals, I’ve never seen so many thought leaders and elected officials from both right and left unite to defeat an anti-animal bill. Some things are bigger than political tribalism, and basic decency toward animals is one of them. Here's a small sample of those speaking out against including SOB in the farm bill. 🧵
@LeaderJohnThune The SAVE America Act received 50 votes on the Senator Mike Lee amendment for the House-passed version.
You do have the votes.
You have NOT implemented the talking filibuster.
You have NOT forced democrats to speak out against the SAVE America Act.
🚨 WOW! Spencer Pratt just dropped this after they stole the LA mayoral election from him — he’s about to drop BOMBSHELLS he was saving for the general election!
“We have some recordings of one of your insulting candidates doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame.” 🤯
“I was saving it for the general election. Go ahead and pick your demon, certify your choice, and then you get to see it.”
“You think you can get rid of me that easily?”
“Karen, Nithya, ask yourself, is it possible that one of your employees may have a recording of you doing or saying something that would force you to resign in disgrace?”
🔥🔥🔥
“I'm going to be lighting you up every single day and now I don't have to worry about offending CNN viewers.”
“I don't have campaign laws hamstringing me now. It's WAR. It's zero hour for Los Angeles!”