Kemi Badenoch today demanded that Sir Keir Starmer step in to stop the ‘mass slaughter’ of Dartmoor ponies by bureaucrats at Natural England. The quango sparked outrage after it emerged that it wants to cut the number of livestock grazing on the moor by a devastating 75 per cent. The unaccountable body insists that a cull is necessary to protect other species, plants and habitats.
Badenoch this morning slammed the secret slaughter plot, posting on X:
This is total madness from another unaccountable quango. The government must overrule Natural England and stop it immediately. Keir Starmer is on his way to making his last acts in office the shameful underfunding of our military and the mass slaughter of Dartmoor ponies.
There are currently fewer than 1,000 Dartmoor ponies, down from 7,000 in 1999. The beautiful creatures have been around for 4,000 years and are perfectly adapted to the moor’s marshy terrain. They form one of England’s last semi-wild herds. More than 130,000 members of the public have already signed a petition to save them.
If ever there were a time for the Prime Minister to get off his high horse and save a beloved animal species, this is surely it. But Mr S won’t hold his breath…
Comments