With the state of the economy affecting horse sales, over 1000 TB horses have been slaughtered in Ireland this year due to lack of sales, a quick decision had to be made on how to solve the problem and the most logical was to slaughter and sell the meat to the continent, despite the great affection for horses amongst the Irish and British people.
In England, the wild ponies in the New forest, Welsh mountains, northern fells etc, that used to be auctioned, are being slaughtered through a mobile slaughter unit, before any ecological damage can be done, again over 1000 ponies are involved in this cull. All these wild populations have been rounded up every year for centuries, and as a result the populations have been managed to fit into the local ecology without causing damage, or restricting the amount of forage for wild deer and cattle grazed under ancient commons grazing laws, the only change is that instead of the ponies being auctioned, most will be sold a meat while the live market is depressed. The pro feral horse lobby in the USA need to study the successful management of wild horse populations in Britain and learn about the ecological impact of overpopulation, more so in the brittle environments of the southern states of the USA>
..no, you dont want that? OK..then they arent native and are being dealt with alot better then other "non native" species that are intrusive on the ecosystem...(like hogs).
