So the ponies that are slaughtered at the age of three are the same ponies that could previously have been destroyed as foals under the age of 12 months. Ideally, if the programme of population management works, the necessity to slaughter ponies will be kept to a minimum, making the meat a high-end delicacy, not a supermarket staple. But if the project is high-welfare and is run with sensitivity, if it secures a future for an animal which is an icon not just of Dartmoor, but of Devon and the whole of the UK, it must surely be worth a try.
For more information visit:. Try before you buy. View digital edition. Taste Buds is produced using Devon-based writers, chefs, photographers and sales team. It is printed on environmentally friendly paper. Just like the food we write about, Taste Buds is lovingly made using the finest local ingredients! Advertising Enquiries Julie Hutchins: Just one of the zoo's three tigers will eat up to 15kg of pony meat a day — that's a large adult pony up to kg per tiger per week.
Then there are the lions, bears, jaguars, lynx, cheetahs and wolves to feed — all require fresh meat. He then sells on surplus meat to some other local zoos, such as Paignton zoo or Combe Martin wildlife park on Exmoor.
Goatman says he needs other zoos to pay 75p a kilo for the pony meat for the trade to be sustainable economically. It should make sense, as Paignton zoo has been paying 89p for what we call 'miscellaneous knackermeat', which can be anything slaughtered on a farm. It's all about trying to create a market for the otherwise unwanted ponies, which would either be shot by the farmer or turfed back on to the moors, which causes all sorts of problems with cross-breeding.
The practice of feeding ponies to zoo animals isn't new; it has been taking place for years, albeit on a much, much smaller scale. About a third now go to the zoos. I don't like doing it, but it's about securing a future for the breed.
In the long term, it will help to restore the market for pure-bred ponies, which is in everyone's interest as it will ensure the Dartmoor ponies remain on the moors. Tim Garrett has been holding pony auctions for Rendells auctioneers in Chagford for "longer than he cares to remember". He's seen the price of ponies rise and fall over the decades, but times have never been as bad as they are now.
It's all about nurturing a market. In years gone by there was a demand for pit ponies that were sent down mines. This was largely why these small ponies were being bred here. Up until the second world war, we used to eat horsemeat in this country. Then came the demand for horsemeat in dog food, but that didn't last long. More recently, the market has been for pedigree ponies for children to ride. Since , we've tried to build up a trade in better pedigree, healthier ponies, many of which were going to Ireland.
But we've had some real hammer blows in recent years, and not just because of the recession. Dartmoor's community of pony owners managed to negotiate a clause that stipulates this only comes into force once a pony is taken off the moors, but it has still acted to deflate the market.
But the "killer blow", says Garrett, was the introduction of the EU welfare in transport regulation which, since , has demanded that horses must be transported in single partitions on journeys longer than eight hours, or on ferries. They hate to be split up. It is cruel to isolate them like this. But it has also made the cost of transporting them totally uneconomic.
Within a decade, I don't think there will be any ponies left on the moors. Neighbouring Sites Cornwall Dorset Somerset. E-mail this to a friend Printable version.
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