The annual trek is complete....the ponies have crossed the channel.

Remember, "Wild Ponies bite and kick - DO NOT feed them"

Ponies make annual swim | delawareonline | The News Journal

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Drinking alcohol in Kentucky is considered being "sober" until you cannot hold on to the ground.

what do the animal lovers think of this? i see people all up in arms and talking about how they should not so this, please do fill in the blanks here

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Smile, God loves you

What blanks ?

It's the Annual Pony Penning. They run the Ponies from Assateague to Chincoteague on the last Wednesday in July, auction off what they can on Thursday and then run the left overs back on Friday until next year. The proceeds go toward caring for the Herd and to fund the Chincoteague Fire Department ...

*Some folks just need a cause to gripe about.

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Ignorance is our most expensive commodity ...

Well....I'm not an expert on this, but since I tend to err on the side of animal activism, I looked into it a tad and what I've found is that the ponies are used to being free on the island and are now being forced to be someone's pet which in itself is not in their nature. In addition, their diet is much different than a typical horse or pony. They normally eat salt marsh cordgrass. The article that I just read on this seems to suggest that a lot of the ponies end up at slaughter houses after people get tired of their bad temperment and difficult dietary requirements. I can definately see where this would be a concern for animal activists.

Friends of Animals | The Chincoteague Ponies: Wildlife on the Brink

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<3 I love a warm pig belly for my aching feet <3

I dont really have an opinion either way, there's pros and cons on both sides. I just wanna go watch it sometime. Been here 8 years now and still havent gotten to go see it. :-( Maybe ~someone~ will take me next time.....

I am down here now in Chincoteague. I have been coming down here now for over 30 years. I have watched the swim and even was a Saltwater Cowboy for 2 years and swam across with them. It is an outstanding event.

It is a great event, a great tradition and it thins the herd. If a few ponies end up in a slaughter house because people cannot take care of them how is that the fault of CVFD? Should not the blame be on those that take them to the slaughter?

If the herds were not thinned, they all would die!

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TalkPa.net - Pennsylvania's Forum

It's about that. I can check for sure tomorrow at the auction.

They are stray animals and they're a tourist attraction. That's why it happens. Money is the motivating factor. If their main concern is the thinning of the herd, there are more humane ways to do it. The National Parks Service keeps perfectly good population control of the horses on the Maryland side using contraceptives. No need for rounding them up and auctioning them off to the highest bidder.

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A lot of the ponies that are auctioned are never picked up, they stay with the herd and the Fire Co gets the cake...win win for the Fire Co and the ponies.

Besides, ponies need exercise and excitement in their lives too! A single weekend swim isn't gonna hurt 'em....

The swim does more psychological damage than physical damage. If you could put yourself in the perspective of a wild animal, and then it's first contact with humans is all THAT mayhem and confusion, and then they get wrenched away from everything that means security to them and taken where ever, and THEN people expect them to be cute little My Little Misty Of Chincoteague Pony.

And when they aren't, they're mean and nasty tempered because they're WILD ANIMALS whose first experience with people wasn't a very positive one, and people get tired of them really quickly, they end up in Fido's Alpo.

But don't anybody trouble yourself over it. It's all for their own good. We know what's best for THEM.

I hear ya Py...they're "prey" animals to begin with and are cursed with a flight reflex to begin with, but it could be worse...humans could have developed their grazing lands and shuffled them all off to the glue factory...or rounded 'em up on a train and took 'em out west.

Humans don't think about the consequences to other species before action is taken...that's why there aren't any ivory-billed woodpeckers anymore.

I thought it wasn't until later in the year!

Its not, if you look at the top left corner its an old thread from july last year,but dont worry you will get use to it,i have been on here a year and i miss that sometimes..