An initiative marketed as a rewilding and biodiversity conservation project may actually be putting vulnerable animals in harm’s way. Exmoor ponies at Denmark’s Mols Bjerge National Park are reportedly severely underfed and at risk of starvation. Images have emerged of the ponies with apparent emaciation so severe that bones protrude from their bodies.
Since human hunters killed off nearly all the wild horses in Europe, breeds like Exmoor ponies have become popular picks for rewilding projects. The ponies also help graze and maintain land. Unfortunately, problems arise during the winter because the ponies’ grazing grounds are much more limited, diminishing their health. Making matters worse, the ponies must stay inside fenced-in enclosures, so they cannot roam to access food and ensure their well-being and survival.
The park authorities in charge of this project, Molslaboratoriet, refuse to make needed changes. They will not take down the fencing and free the animals to roam freely within the park. Despite the fact that the ponies must stay inside these very man-made enclosures, the organization reportedly will not even provide supplemental food on the argument that they are trying to maintain “wild” conditions. Instead, Molslaboratoriet leaders divert the blame to supposedly overreacting animal activists.
Sign the petition below to demand this park take better care of the animals under its care.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Director Wermelin,
Molslaboratoriet of the Mols Bjerge National Park claims the Exmoor ponies within this park are well-nourished and healthy. Stirring images of these animals with apparent bones apparently sticking from their skin tell a different story. Molslaboratoriet also lays the blame for criticism on animal activists sowing misinformation. Is the insinuation that the Exmoor Pony Society, whose sole mission is the protection of these animals, makes up tales…tales backed by photographic evidence?
Rewilding is supposed to be about promoting the welfare and the spread of wildlife and plants endangered by human intervention. Such a conservation effort should never become a source of controversy about animal welfare itself. The excuses that additional food cannot be provided because of a need to maintain wild conditions hold no water when these animals are imprisoned by very unnatural fences. Further, other similar initiatives have succeeded without the need for these artificial barriers.
As the overseer of Denmark’s national parks, please encourage removal of the restrictive fencing and help make this park a true natural wonder. In the interim, ensure these ponies clearly under the care of the park are provided the proper sustenance. Give the resilient Exmoor ponies a fighting chance.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Nestor Montagu
This is an immoral and unethical situation for these ponies! Denmark you are showing the world just how I uncaring towards animals your country is. PLEASE take charge, do your job, & take care of these innocent ponies!
Yes, I agree. Denmark is supporting the Faroese to slaughter dolphins and pilot whales in the Grindawrap! They should prove they care
They’d better feed their ponies. The one in the picture looks pretty miserable. Denmark, do your job and allow the animal you are in charge of to simply survive.
The vile bastards who run this repulsive park need to be thrown in prison and starved until their death.
Amen!!
Pfft. Denmark, where they also killed 17 million mink to prevent spread of covid and let’s not forget the part of Denmark called the Faroe Islands where one of the most vicious whale and dolphn annual slaughters occurs ever year. These people are bastards. Fuck this country.
This is atrocious!! You suck, Denmark!!
The world is watching!!
I am enraged you are doing nothing as these poor ponies suffer abd die!!
Damn you!!
If that whale hunt starts again I think we should blow the Pharoe Islands of the map.
Please give food to these ponies and take down the fence so they can forage for food once they have had time to recover from near starving. This is so cruel to fence them in. Please be more compassionate for these wild ponies.
We homo “sapiens” have wiped out 60 % of animal species since 1970, in our greed for more, more, more.
Elks in America now Ponies in Denmark…..we really are the most evil and greediest of species, I find it despicable and barbaric…..mother nature provides enough for everything and none of it is ours to claim or deny others of
Yes, I agree. Denmark is supporting the Faroese to slaughter dolphins and pilot whales in the Grindawrap! They should prove they care
These Poor ponies needs to be fed & don’t deserve 2 be starve to death @ all,These Pricks need 2 be put in the Slammer!!!!
Where does it end? Dolphins, Giraffes, Minks, and now these horses to add to the many crimes the “happiest” country in the World turns a blind eye to, as Nelson did at the battle of Copenhagen? Being born of a Danish mother in French Morocco, denied any chance at citizenship, having personally observed the smugness and prosperity based on exploitative economic enterprises, I am hardly surprised the there is , indeed “ something rotten in Denmark”!
What else can humans do to animals? If people stopped poking their nose in the lives of animals, they would be better off. Usually management means for the benefit of man only.
Americans who read this and are not sociopaths: please boycott all Danish imports into the USA.
Let the sociopaths in Denmark miss a few meals to see what hunger feels like.
Yes, I agree but you should also try to stop the roundup of wild horses in your country too, in the same way we Brits are trying to stop foxhunting and animal testing
We are trying to get support to boycott Faroese fish products too
So …. animal activists are to blame for overreacting??!! FEED THE ANIMALS.
Totally UNACCEPTABLE!!! You’ve FENCED the ponies in. They cannot roam for food by instinct. You fended them in, keeping them from their environment. PROVIDE FOOD and WATER for the animals UNDER YOUR CARE!!! Please and thank you.
Bring Humanity back to United States feed the animals
You would think that caring for an animal in need would be a no brainer. Why is Denmark showing the world a heartless, soulless side for God’s creatures. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR HEART? YOUR COUNTRY IS JUDGED BY THE WAY YOU TREAT YOUR ANIMALS…SO FAR IT’S A DISGRACE… YOUR TRACK RECORD FOR THE WAY YOU TREAT ANIMALS HAS BEEN NOTED IN HISTORY BOOKS….YOU CANNOT ERASE THAT …AND YOU WILL GET WHAT’S COMING TO YOU.
SO CHANGE NOW AND GIVE THESE PONIES GRAZING LAND AND WHATEVER ELSE THEY NEED…THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO LIVE AS YOU DO….BUT IF YOU DON’T THEN I HOPE YOU GET THE SAME TREATMENT BACK ….
CLOSE THAT NATIONAL PARK IN DENMARK IMMEDIATELY. NO DELAY.
WTF!!!?
Denmark does SUCK
DENMARK YOUR COUNTRY IS PURE EVIL!!!!! SHAME SHAME ON YOU!!!!~!
Is there no one with authority or money to stand up to these rotten lot. Any famous activists please out there. Every creature deserves the right to live. Denmark you are being watched. Vile and greedy.
I’m afraid that many of you are so wrong about Denmark. Most of us are caring more about animals than many other countries.
What is happening on the Faroe Islands is none of our business.