SWEP recieved a call about a pony on Pensilva Down who was suffering with colic, she appeared to be in alot of pain and was rolling. She was helped up by a passing walker and horse rider. Our welfare officer attended the scene and found alot of food waste by the side of the road, this included potato peelings, bread and grass cuttings - all of which are potentially lethal if eaten by a pony, other vegetable matter was found. The most alarming find was dry sugar beet pellets, sugar beet MUST be soaked for 24 hours before being fed. If it is fed in its dry state it will swell up in the animals digestive tract and stomach causing severe colic and possibly death.
We are urging people NOT TO FEED THE PONIES on Bodmin moor and Dartmoor, especially near any roads as it encourages them to come down to the roads and enevitably they end up being hit by cars.
Please see link for article in The Cornish Guardian on 28/02/2012:
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Public-warned-feed-ponies-Bodmin-Moor-rise/story-15292291-detail/story.html
