The free-roaming, stout little mini-horses in Dartmoor, UK are known for their resiliency and determination to survive. But people who want to make a profit off of animals don’t care. Instead of seeing these creatures as living, breathing beings, unscrupulous people treat the ponies as cargo — first, by rounding them up every autumn, and then by selling the animals off at an annual event. Recent videos also reveal captors abusing and tormenting these ponies while trading them for money at auction.
Recent footage shows that, after ponies were rounded up this past autumn, their captors left many of the creatures without food or water, putting the animals in danger of death. Then, at auction, handlers picked ponies up by their tails, causing immense pain, and kicked others to force them onto trailers. Even worse, at this annual event, many ponies are sold to slaughterhouses where they are butchered for scientific research or to become meat — for both human and animal consumption. Luckily, people in the Dartmoor area are standing up for the ponies, demanding an end to this cruel auction. We must stand with them. Sign the petition to demand the annual sale of ponies in Dartmoor be shut down!