A leading British veterinarian is proposing that horse meat should be served up in restaurants to help save Exmoor’s ponies. The Ponies have grazed the moor since prehistoric times but equine expert Peter Green says in a report they are fast being outnumbered by unwanted horses dumped on the moor by hard-up owners.
A herd of Exmoor ponies
Claiming the abandoned horses are endangering the pure-bred wild ponies by cross-breeding with the natives, a British vet says the answer is to shoot them and sell them as horse meat.
© 2014 by Flickr
Claiming the abandoned horses are endangering the pure-bred wild ponies by cross-breeding with the natives, he says the answer is to shoot them and sell them as horse meat.
His 72-page report, ‘The free-living ponies within the Exmoor National Park: their status, welfare and future’, comes weeks after Princess Anne said Britain ought to become a nation of horseflesh eaters.
In it he admits some landowners are appalled by the idea of putting pony on the dinner table but others back him.
'As there is so limited a market for ridden ponies, show ponies and conservation grazers, why not promote the free-living Exmoor ponies as a food animal as much as an amenity or aesthetic resource?'
‘Several contributors expressed the view that the British aversion to eating horse meat was both illogical and unhelpful to the free-living Exmoor ponies,’ he says.
But experts agree something needs to be done to protect the remaining 500 or so. Under Mr Green’s plan the ‘excess’ ponies would be processed at EU-approved abattoirs.
The report was commissioned by conservation groups including the Exmoor National Park Authority and the Exmoor Pony Society.
Under his plan the 'excess' ponies would be slaughtered, processed and inspected at EU-approved abattoirs in line with red meat regulations before entering the food chain.
Some EPS committee members are understood to support the plan but others have warned it could put off tourists who like to visit Exmoor to stroke and ride the famous animals.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Dartmoor ponies were being fed to zoo lions and tigers. And the Mail on Sunday reported that their hides were being crafted into drums used in Druid-style retreats to capture the rhythms of ‘life and the moon’.
A spokesman for People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said culling was ‘a cruel and ineffective way to manage pony numbers when chemical sterilizers are available’.