Letter: There’s some disturbing behaviour in the forest
Sir – I was pleased to see the article on the front page last week regarding the chasing of the pony by what appeared from the photograph to be a very vicious and obviously out of control dog.
Pleased you may think – what a funny thing to say. Well, I was pleased that you brought this to everyone’s attention as I really don’t think we can take much more of this disturbing behaviour here in the Forest.
As a commoner with animals on the Forest I have asked many times that rules are applied here that all dogs being exercised on the Forest are on leads. That is the only way the owners can be sure they are under control.
Many dogs are simply not used to the livestock that they find themselves amongst and their instincts overtake them and they turn from friendly pet to a fierce killer. Yes killer – I have witnessed a calf killed by a dog on the open Forest and that would not be the only incidence of fatality.
The spring is a time for foals and calves; the mares deserve peace and safety for them and their offspring at this time.
A mother cow will be a dangerous thing if she feels her baby needs protecting and of course she should protect it – any mother does that. But here if a cow seems to be disliking people near it the owner gets asked to take the animal off the Forest – a little unfair when the cow was simply being a ‘good’ mother. After all the cow was here first, it is a her home all year round, she can’t take herself off to a maternity home can she?
With so many people using the Forest now to exercise their dogs and many dog walkers bringing several packs of dogs each day, I cannot see how our livestock can be safe without better, stronger restrictions on these unruly dogs.
This is a unique place, known throughout the world for the New Forest ponies roaming free. If people can’t respect the animals there will come a time when there will be no animals turned out there to enjoy.
Why would I as a commoner want to keep my animals in such an unsafe place? I don’t want to think that they are being harassed on a daily basis - what a stressful life for them.
The authorities that are in place to ‘protect’ this special place need to accept that the thing that it needs protecting from is man. We watch on the television the detrimental impact that man as a species is having in other parts of the world whilst this is going on in front of our noses.
Time to realise that changes must be made if we really want to preserve this unique and treasured place. If not, then label the darned thing a theme park and get some plastic horses and cows because no living creature deserves to live in this terrorized manner.
Lucie Rowe,
Totton
