sparkling horseshoe About SWEP cont.
SOUTH WEST EQUINE PROTECTION

 

Our Aims (cont.)

Campaign on vital issues.
Apart from dealing with immediate welfare problems, SWEP is also campaigning to raise the profile of some of the underlying issues that contribute to them.
Road Deaths
a mare implores her foal to get up...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







SWEP is increasingly concerned by the growing number of livestock deaths on Dartmoor's roads and is campaigning for the fencing of the most dangerous sections of the the roads that cross Dartmoor.
We have joined other animal welfare organisations in supporting the campaign launched by our main regional newspaper to raise the awareness of motorists on the moors.
We also call on motorists involved in collisions with animals not to ignore the incident, but to report the accident to the police, local vet or one of the animal welfare groups such as SWEP

Registration
One of SWEP's objectives is to encourage responsible ownership - this includes moorland equines as well as domestic horses and ponies. Ownership of the horses and ponies on Bodmin Moor is often difficult to establish, allowing unscrupulous owners to evade their responsibilities.
Unlike Dartmoor, the Bodmin ponies are not registered, so we are campaigning for a registration scheme for equines on common land.

See the Hot Issues page for more information on these and other campaign issues.

Educate.
We also aim to do something about the causes of the problems we are dealing with through education. We publish information about the care and management of equines on our web site and are developing a library of helpful articles.
We work with the Duchy College in Cornwall, taking students undertaking their animal welfare courses. Our own facilities would enable us to give practical demonstrations on the safe handling and management of semi - feral horses and ponies, as well as providing education in equine care and welfare. To this end we have launched the "A Home Of Our Own" appeal

Contribute to Community Development.
We hope to increase the contribution we currently make to social and community development through both the welfare and educational aspects of our work. To date this has, of necessity, been limited to helping local farmers in the care and management of their equine stock during the foot and mouth crisis and in this period of plummeting prices for moorland ponies.
We plan to extend our work with the Duchy College to offer courses specifically related to the skills required to care for, handle and halter train wild moorland ponies, thereby enabling farmers to produce better quality ponies that will attract better prices.
More generally, Devon and particularly, Cornwall are economically disadvantaged areas where people are needing to diversify from traditional rural jobs. SWEP is well placed to offer courses in partnership with local colleges to those wanting to enter into, what DEFRA describes as, the Horse Industry (which would - in turn - generate income for it's own work).
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