DARTMOOR HILL PONY FOALS CURRENTLY FOR SALE IN BELGIUM
This weekend I was told about a post on a Facebook page that had been deleted...and some research helped by some eagle eyed followers confirmed what I was told -
There are indeed Dartmoor Hill pony foals, described as unhandled, currently for sale in Belgium...7 months old...apparently from a group of 17. The paperwork to get equines out of the UK to the EU are now more difficult than ever! Why would a post about these ponies be deleted from a page promoting the ponies?
I wonder if they were sold straight from the farm, or whether they were sold at the Chagford market to a dealer or via the online sale or ended up there via other routes...there's a quarantine period now for 30 days before export and get tested for equine infectious anaemia + a whole host of paperwork - all listed here Export horses and ponies: special rules - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk
If there's a shortage of ponies on Dartmoor why are they being exported to Belgium?
And if the contraceptive scheme is such a success why are there more ponies than ever on the moor by drift time - particularly at the markets - there are more ponies, not less?!
Just before Christmas a pony bred in mid Devon popped up in Poland waiting to go for slaughter...we've seen Dartmoor Hill ponies pop up previously in Southern Ireland...and at a meat market in France (when Defra said none had left the country)...and now we put Belgium on the map...let's hope they find themselves a good, kind, understanding homes having escaped the meat schemes on the moor and the knackerman.