Natural England is about to make a decision that could remove up to 90% of Dartmoor's hill ponies from the moor, and Exmoor could be next.
New grazing contracts, due as early as late 2026, would force farming families to choose between their ponies and their livelihoods. These are rare, endangered animals that have grazed these moors for thousands of years, and once they are gone, they will not come back.
Nearly 15,000 people have already signed the petition. Now we need to go further. Add your name to this letter to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and demand she orders an immediate pause and independent review before it is too late.
Add your name to the letter
Dear Secretary of State,
We write to urge you to intervene urgently in Natural England's proposed new grazing contracts for Dartmoor, which could come into force as early as late 2026.
Under these contracts, Dartmoor's semi-wild hill ponies would for the first time be counted within overall livestock grazing quotas. The practical consequence is that commoners will be compelled to remove ponies from the moor in favour of more commercially viable cattle and sheep. Campaigners estimate that up to 90% of the current hill pony population could be lost as a result.
We believe this decision is both ecologically damaging and scientifically unjustified. Dartmoor's hill ponies play a vital role in controlling invasive Molinia grass, which is spreading across the moor and crowding out native plant species. Removing them will accelerate the very biodiversity decline that Natural England is charged with reversing. Until now, ponies have been expressly excluded from grazing quota calculations in recognition of this fact. The proposed contracts abandon that protection without adequate justification.
We are also deeply concerned about the precedent this sets. Exmoor's own hill ponies are classified as critically endangered, with the indigenous moorland population descended from fewer than fifty animals after the Second World War. Any signal from Natural England that free-living moorland ponies are expendable in the management of upland habitats poses a direct threat to their future too.
We ask you to direct Natural England to pause the implementation of these contracts pending an independent ecological review, and to ensure that the future of Britain's moorland pony herds is properly considered before any irreversible decisions are made.
Kind regards
James Wright
