I hope I am not alone in wishing that there were no sheep or ponies on Dartmoor. Every time I venture out (vowing never again) I see an animal either injured, starving, obviously malnurished after giving birth (usually anaemic, and yes I can spot it, I was a vet's nurse). Having had experience of the Commoners' practices from a personal professional perspective - but not in a veterinary manner - I would prefer that these animals are kept in controlled areas, fed and inspected regularly and then we can stop treating them as part of the tourist industry and as equal to any farm animal, entitled to care, medication and food. I come from the fens of Cambridgeshire where people treat livestock properly - either it is for food or fun (pets etc) either way they are valuable and need care!
People wittering on about the cost of passports today 28 January 2004, are maybe worried that we can trace them when their livestock is in need of a vet, splattered all over the road, or standing in the road at night just waiting to cause an accident. How come a cow on a road anywhere else results in the farmer being fined? Come on you farmers, there are sheep out there with footrot, I hope its not foot and mouth, ponies with gashes, mares which have not been cleansed properly after foaling - you should be ashamed of yourselves. If they are not worth anything, get rid of them and grow some wild flowers for which you can get a subsidy. Yes I am very angry, after 20 years living in the area the whole attitude to animals on that moor is a disgrace and spoils any enjoyment I can ever have of it.