Earlier this month a week-long operation took place to passport and microchip over 160 ponies on Bodmin Moor to tackle recent spates of deaths.
Early 2016 saw a number of ponies found dead from harsh winter conditions, hunger, neglect or disease. It is suspected that some ponies are dumped on the moor without sufficient food or shelter.
Scott was keen to get involved in the operation which was coordinated by equine charities and authorities to microchip and passport over 160 ponies to make sure that their owners can be traced if found neglected.
The operation was also a good opportunity to give the ponies a health check-up and identify those which needed to be re-homed in sanctuaries.
Some stallions were also removed and re-homed in order to ease overpopulation problems in the future.
The remains of ponies were discovered by local people over the winter, and they contacted Scott Mann asking that action be taken to help the remaining ponies.
Scott Mann said:
“I've had many constituents contact me about the welfare of ponies on Bodmin Moor, many of which have been found dead from neglect or disease.
“I've since been working with the Redwings Pony Sanctuary, the RSPCA, Cornwall Council, DEFRA, various charities and the Bodmin Moor Commons Council to address this, and thanks to the generous funds by the Elise Pilkington Charitable Trust, we were able to microchip and passport over 160 ponies.
“I was very impressed by the scale of this operation and the close co-ordination between so many agencies. This problem was never going to be resolved by removing or treating the odd pony here or there.
“I'm glad that we've been able to address this issue in such a coordinated and effective way. It has been left and dealt with ineffectively for over a decade, and we believe that things are finally moving in the right direction.”
Julie Dowton of the Bodmin Moor Commons Council said:
"We haven't been able to identify the owners of these ponies over a number of years and it's a big problem.
"By microchipping the ponies, we will now be able to remove those which have been abandoned much more quickly." said chipping would allow it to alert owners when sick ponies are found."
Nicholas de Brauwere, who is a vet at Redwings sanctuary, said:
"There are people who don't want to take responsibility and there are those who put food out for their ponies in the winter which is then eaten by everyone else's ponies."