Hallworthy Sale Update

We would like to thank everyone for their AMAZING support after we published our blog post about Hallworthy Market – over 34,000 shares on Facebook in 4 days is just phenomenal and has helped to raise so much awareness about this sale!  Thank you to everyone who has commented and shared their experiences of this sale.

I’m a bit surprised about the article published in the WestBriton paper – to set the record straight, one of our volunteers has already complained about the sale and did so on the 24th – we are in the process of submitting an official complaint to the authorities and have been putting together and reviewing all the information that we were able to gather at the sale.  I know other complaints have been made by individuals and that there will be more complaints which will be submitted and some of these will be from other equine organisations that were present.  As we saw no authorities there during the day, we were unable to complain on the day.  When I have seen an individual from a welfare organisation complain during a previous year at Hallworthy horse sale, I have seen them banned from the auction house by the auctioneer, even though their complaints have been upheld by authorities present. In previous years, individuals trying to record video of the sale were also banned by the auction house.

Our volunteer had a reply from Trading Standards which says that Trading Standards were not present at the pony sale (which confirms our statement)….and this is in writing from them!  This is what Trading Standards said… “I must also inform you that I was myself present at Hallworthy market on 22 October 2016 from 9:30 – 11:00am. I inspected both the poultry and small animals and pony sections prior to sale. As an animal health function of the Council we have a very limited budget and can longer resource attendance at all markets, further we do not pay over-time and staff are merely credited the hours worked outside of normal core hours. On this occasion I decided to allocate a short time for myself to visit and inspect both sales. I decided on this occasion to be there to inspect the animals prior to sale to assess fitness for sale and the conditions of penning. I detected no problems and left as the sale had begun. On other occasions I might arrive later in the day and watch the loading, I decided against this as I wanted to maximise the number and species of animals present to be inspected (the poultry tend to leave much sooner than the horses) – this ensures best use of the very limited resources available.”

The TS representative was only able to see animals before the sale started.  The trading standards email also says “As explained I was present from 9:30-11:00 and was in contact with the APHA duty vet who was on stand-by to attend if required” – the Defra vet was not there, only on “standby”.

This is the 7^th year that we have attended Hallworthy market – and we have attended all the Devon and Cornwall wild pony markets in that time.  We have publically stated that in the last couple of years that standards had improved at Hallworthy – we do give positive feedback where we see it.  Unfortunately this year we could not say this, and if it means the auction house decides that we are banned from the market because we stated what we witnessed, then so be it.   We hope that next year standards will be back up, authorities will be present,  and that more positive reviews can be given again.  Perhaps CCTV is needed to monitor what takes place at the markets.   

We have already written to Devon Trading Standards as there was no presence from the authorities at the Devon wild pony sales either.  

In the meantime, reports coming in suggesting that live exports may have started again are not encouraging.

Perhaps our recently published report which revealed the bioaccumulation of toxicity of arsenic, beryllium, uranium, aluminium, and lithium in ponies from some areas on Bodmin Moor will put people off when they realise what they are passing into the food chains and how the toxicity is passed onto consumers!  Until the market next year, focus also needs to be on the moors themselves and promoting our research to improve welfare.  The Commons we tested need improvements to be made to ensure welfare - compulsory feeding by owners/authorities during the winter to prevent starvation (ponies must NOT be fed by the public), mineral provision all year around, and fencing off of water supplies that are toxic.

Fewer ponies bred + better welfare  = better prices + better advertising + private homes

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