Dog owners warned over pets terrorising wild ponies

WARDENS at New Forest National Park have urged walkers to keep their pets on a lead – after photos emerged of a dog attacking one of its ponies.

The New Forest Commoners Defence Association said yesterday that there was a growing problem of dogs terrorising livestock and scaring away nesting birds at the national park. The park has been home to New Forest ponies since the end of the last ice age and the animals roam free in the area.

Photographs have emerged of an Australian cattle dog, which was allowed off its lead, attacking a mare at Wilverley Plain, Hants, which is popular with dog walkers.

The dog can be seen baring its teeth as it chases after the horse, which had to kick out at the animal.

About 3,000 cattle and 5,000 ponies roam free in the New Forest during the summer months, with dog owners asked to keep their pets on a lead and give livestock a wide berth.

The livestock are released on to the open heathland by the forest “commoners”, local residents who hold the right to graze their animals on the land.

The incident comes after an NFU Mutual survey of more than 1,100 dog owners found two thirds of owners (64 per cent) confess they let their dog roam off-lead in the countryside.

The New Forest Commoners Defence Association – a group that seeks to protect the historic rights to graze animals in the woodlands and heathlands of the area – said the number of dog attacks on livestock was growing.

The photographer who captured the incident, and who did not want to be named, said: “The whole incident lasted five minutes; it must have been five minutes of terror for the pony.”