melissa
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Post by melissa on Dec 9, 2007 18:13:47 GMT 1
EMW - it seems there are quite a few people on here that would like to help. Whats would the next step be?
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EMW-UK
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Post by EMW-UK on Dec 9, 2007 18:39:30 GMT 1
We will be contacting APGAW tomorrow to see whet support can be given regarding the concerns we have raised. Newspaper interest is already in hand. I need to await the full report in from EMW Wales first giving clear indication of the problems she witnessed. To start with there needs to be common ground between the producers of these ponies and those with welfare interest. We need to tred a bit carefully here - much can be achieved with the carrot and little from the stick with the older generations of pony farmers. emw xx
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Post by jill on Dec 9, 2007 18:44:46 GMT 1
Would any of the veterinary colleges help with the costs of gelding or any other form of birth control (does hormone therapy work with ponies?) Do we have any contacts?
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chloe
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Post by chloe on Dec 9, 2007 19:33:06 GMT 1
If there's anything the public can do to help, I'd love to get involved and I know several from my yard would too!
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Post by jackiedo on Dec 9, 2007 20:46:21 GMT 1
Can I just say what a refreshing change it is to read a welfare thread without anyone insulting anyone else. In the meantime can you email me your sponsor a pony christmas promotion and I will put it up at work. jacquelinedodds@barnsley.gov.uk
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Post by sarahfox on Dec 9, 2007 21:11:43 GMT 1
Well done EMW!!! Happy to help in any way I can.
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megnum
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Post by megnum on Dec 9, 2007 21:16:43 GMT 1
I will help if any action is taken it is horrid to think that £3 I may spend on a pack of horse treats for Mags could buy a little pony and give them a chance
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booboo
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Post by booboo on Dec 9, 2007 21:31:43 GMT 1
Just to add that there is the APGAW group for goverment/assembly in Scotland and England too. I'm part of the Welsh one as a rep of Dogs Trust. EMW - do get in touch and become a member if you can as (if I'm correct in thinking) so much of your work is within Wales. Very productive meetings are held at the Welsh Assembly and real headway has been done with networking and lobbying, greyhounds is a prime example like I said in a previous post. You can have the chance to get these pony sales raised within the meeting then plans can be made on what the whole APGAW group can do to make changes. Respect for the workings of the law and govermental processes is paramount throughout and this can make things frustrating and tedious but so worth it when goverment makes the changes required! Although I'm representing' doggy issues' at the forum, the idea is network support and will very much back issues to improve pony sales and welfare. This is the Wales APGAW website link.... www.apgawwales.org/index.asp
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pip
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Post by pip on Dec 9, 2007 21:36:42 GMT 1
I had a little coloured colt as a companion to my horse one winter (until it was time to have him gelded). He was a £6.00 purchase from a sale. The Yard Owner had gone to a sale and bought about 6 and then got them home and sold them to his liveries (for about £40.00) as they were all so sweet and looking poor and unhappy. They would have gone to the meat man. He was genuinly happy to "rescue" them but it was also a nice little earner for him as he then charged for their keep!
This little coloured chap turned out into a beautiful child's pony. Quiet to ride and a good little jumper.
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laura
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Post by laura on Dec 9, 2007 22:06:15 GMT 1
one form of "birth control" cheaper than gelding is inserting a marble in the mares uterus ....... doubt whether this would be considered either . It is obviously not as permanent as gelding but it might be easier
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zig
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Post by zig on Dec 9, 2007 22:58:41 GMT 1
I'd like to help too. I am wondering why the RSPCA is not involved. If these were dogs being farmed and overproduced in this way I think there would be more interest by the welfare charities and the public. I will write to the RSPCA and ask but any action EMW would like me (and by the sound of it many other IH posters) to do I would be pleased to help.
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Post by gem on Dec 9, 2007 23:10:33 GMT 1
poor poor babies anything i can do just ask!
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Post by fin on Dec 9, 2007 23:29:54 GMT 1
I couldn't agree more finn, but to see them churned out eyar after year, some with obvious congentital defects, is soul destroying. I've always thought a subsidy for gelding is the way forward. we've taken many of these little lads and given them a chance, they do come round and become nice ponies, EMW Wales pony Brightling is a good example, an all rounder perfect PC pony, now in his third home teaching small children, not bad for a pony that came in at a scant 4 guineas as a weanling. The root of the problem is down to control of numbers and maintaining the strains through positive breeding practices. emw. Absolutely. Most of the farmers round here are pretty decent--they get nowt for keeping the ponies, even if they try to 'improve' them, because nobody's prepared to pay for them I'm sure if they could find decent homes for every one they'd be ecstatic, but the sending animals to market is pretty much a traditional way of selling round here, especially when you haven't got folks queueing up to buy your stock. The best form of birth control might well be to persuade them that putting a stallion out every year isn't a good idea! As far as I'm aware all the colt foals are taken off the mountain--they're worth even less than the fillies --but the stallions are actually bought and released to run with the mares. Might be wrong but I think that's mostly the way it goes.
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Post by jackiedo on Dec 10, 2007 8:21:25 GMT 1
Yes EMW. you seem to have attracted pretty reasonable people on this one.. One calm and clear co-ordinated attack. Finn the right answer is to reduce the amount of time the stallions are on the hills. there are just too many ponies and not enough homes
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EMW-UK
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Post by EMW-UK on Dec 10, 2007 9:03:26 GMT 1
Getting a working plan will be the crux - plans are only as good as those implimenting them - but owners knowing there is no profitable market for the endless supply of colts might be more inclined to adhere to new practices if the price for youngstock were to rise significantly as a direct result of reduction in breeding. Better for the ponies to have a market that is one home too many on offer than one home too few. Beginning the process will be the hardest part, with the die-hard traditionalists refusing to remove stallions, it may have to have some monetary incentive and that might be the stumbling block - where would such a fund come from? Laura, the concept of the marble is brillinat but the practice might prove impossible as most are feral mares, unhandled and impossible to contain for that procedure. Birth control ought to be an easy option but sadly in practice is still in the hands of the stock owners by means of removal of the entire males and maturing young colts. We will be talking with APGAW wales group today and will become part of it without fail. Please bear with us on this during the next few days as we still have the horses within our sanctuaries to care for as well as an urgent welfare problem to deal with today. Your support is brilliant and much appreciated. We need to keep this matter high profile as these ponies are always the forgotten ones. Anyone who can help source material, breeding numbers etc please go ahead and do that, Pm to here or e-mail to emw@equinemarketwatch.org.uk emw xx
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