Tavistock Dartmoor Pony Sale

SWEP's Welfare Team attended this mornings Dartmoor Hill Pony sale at Tavistock livestock market. 94 ponies were due to go through the ring, however only 57 were present and went through the ring. A couple of sellers did not arrive and some sellers did not bring all the ponies they had listed. On arrival the market was extremely quiet and not at all bustling due to the low numbers of ponies and potential buyers, very different from last year when around 186 ponies were up for selling.

Initially our Welfare Team thought all was well, the ponies were grouped together in relevant sizes, mares and foals were kept together and handling was done with a minimum of force.

Everyone was asked to enter the sales ring room as the sale was about to begin, bidding would be in guineas and not in pounds sterling as it was last year. Bidding was painfully slow and many of the ponies did not sell, those that did sell varied in sales price from 10 guineas to 240 guineas. The strange thing was that looking around to try and establish who was bidding no one could be seen! It wasn't until a little later that our Welfare Officer over heard an argument between a seller and market staff that the reasoning for this became clear. The seller questioned why ponies that sold were put back in the pen with the unsold ponies. The seller was then told that the ponies had not sold. Our Welfare Team took records, including prices of all the ponies that sold and the two in question were on that list; the seller was then offered half the price of micro chipping and passport.

We were a little concerned about the ages of a few of the foals, some looked to be under the age of 4 months; the minimum age to be allowed to go through a sales ring. A representative from another welfare agency said he had raised these concerns with Trading Standards staff who questioned the foals owners, these owners said that these foals were born in April. We cannot prove that this is not true so we could not take it any further.

Another troubling sight was that of a young foal being taken from it's mother after being bought after the official sale, the foal was dragged out of the pen and taken to be microchipped. It was then put in a pen, on it's own where it was seen pacing and trying to get through the bars; obviously extremely distressed. Our Welfare Assistant did question the foals age and was told it was 5 months old, she also questioned whether it should have been separated in such a manner; this was shrugged off by a staff member, (photo below)



As always our Welfare staff stayed to ensure all the remaining ponies were loaded correctly and that none were left. There was a pen of 12 young foals left and after a discussion with a young man our Welfare Officer was informed that these foals were going to the zoo to become zoo meat. Our Welfare Officer spoke to the owner and offered to buy these foals, it was agreed that she would buy the 6 youngest looking. A price was agreed, however the auctioneer was alerted to the fact it was a SWEP representative who was buying the foals, he then informed the owner who then retracted the sale. Our Welfare Officer tried to reason with her but she would not agree to the sale, we can only assume that this owner would rather these foals go to the local zoo to become lion fodder than go to loving homes.

The picture above is of a foal attempting to suckle from another youngster, this behaviour is due to stress. These youngsters would have been drifted off the moor at the beginning of the week and then separated from there mothers. They would then have been loaded into a trailer and bought to the market, where they then go through the market process. This experience is extremely stressful for these young animals.

Foals were also seen licking water off the railings and drinking from small puddles, our Welfare staff asked if some water could be provided for the ponies as they were obviously thirsty. They were told that they were behaving in this manner because they were stressed, our Welfare Officer asked again if water could be provided to which she was told the ponies would be gone soon. If they were still there at lunch time then they would put water down for them.

 

We are investigating todays findings further