MPs are urged to protect moor ponies

NUMBERS HAVE DROPPED MARKEDLY OVER 25 YEARS

- ALISON STEPHENSON

CAMPAIGNERS are calling on MPs to help influence policymakers who may be able to save Dartmoor ponies from extinction.

The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association (DHPA) says pony numbers have dropped from 7,000 to 900 over the last 25 years and must not be allowed to decline further.

Charlotte Faulkner, DHPA chair, said good progress had been made in getting the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to recognise the importance of the nation's only semi-wild pony population, but more action is needed.

The breed now appears on a register of native breeds at risk and was also referenced in a review last year chaired by Devon landowner and Lord Lieutenant of Devon, David Fursdon, on protected site management on Dartmoor as invaluable for conservation grazing and genetically important.