Ponies in Dartmoor, England, are being given contraceptive injections in a bid to control the number of unwanted foals. The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association began the project because foals are not in demand in the current economic climate and the project could prevent young unsold ponies from being slaughtered.
Pony in the hills of Dartmoor
Ponies in Dartmoor, England, are being given contraceptive injections to control the number of unwanted foals.
In addition, the organization maintains that adult numbers needed to be maintained because their grazing benefits the local ecology.
Work on the trial project, which was announced in October, started on Wednesday morning, May 23,2012. Twenty animals will be injected and also micro chipped to monitor them. Vet Keith Meldrum said: "The purpose of the trial is to allow owners to keep their good adult breeding mares and bring them into foal later if they want to do so."
Some veterinarians are against the project including Maureen Rolls, from South West Equine Protection, who maintains that although the drugs will work, it could not be a large-scale solution. She said: "We're dealing with feral ponies, and while they may be able to round them up and inject them, the cost of the ponies does not warrant the costs of the injections."
However, Charlotte Faulkner, founder of the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association and one of the other vets involved, said controlling the numbers of unwanted foals would help animal welfare, and maintains, "It's less expensive than trying to re-home hundreds of foals."
The drugs for the project have been donated by pharmaceuticals company Pfizer, and imported from Australia. The government issued a special license for the contraceptive to be imported into the UK.
If the trial is successful, organizers said it could be expanded to control the populations of other native horses and ponies in areas such as the New Forest, Exmoor and Bodmin