I WOULD like to appeal to readers to join our campaign against the annual killing of Britain's wild ponies.

Hundreds of moorland ponies are killed every year as their destiny at markets is often slaughter. It's a sorry state of affairs when moorland ponies are rounded up and packed off to sales where no one wants to buy them and they barely fetch the price of a stamp. Wild ponies have had virtually no value for a long time so farmers should have stopped breeding them years ago.

Farmers claim that they allow ponies to reproduce as it brings in tourism which the moors and the New Forest rely heavily on. But mares having their foals taken away from them only to be shot is no way to treat our native ponies. When tourists realise that many of the cute wild foals they see are born to be shot, they will go elsewhere for holidays.

Mares are now carrying next year's foals and these will also be killed unless action is taken now. The government must make farmers take their stallions off the moors and forests and stop breeding unwanted foals.

If you want to help end this cruelty, contact Viva! at 12 Queen Square, Brighton BN1 3FD. Tel: 01273 777688 E: ponies@viva.org.uk

Kat Macmillan

Viva! Campaigner