READING your front page story last week, 'Please end this carnage', I found myself torn, as so often happens, between the environmental issues and the humanitarian concerns.
Like most other people concerned with the environment, I'm only too well aware of Dartmoor's status as one of the few remaining near-wildernesses in Britain. It seems crucial that this is preserved. And yet it's also completely unacceptable that so many animals' lives should be lost, often horrifically, as a result of carelessness. The 40mph limit, if it's respected at all, does not seem to have significantly reduced the accidents.
What to do? And yet one partial solution is surely easily implemented. A few years ago some herds of the vulnerable black cattle sported fluorescent fetlock bands which were highly visible at night and must have been quite effective. I don't understand why this has not been widely adopted. It doesn't help prevent winter daytime accidents — ponies licking salt off the roads — but surely it makes a significant difference at night.
If it's a question of funds, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I would be very happy to know that my Council Tax was supporting a life-saving initiative such as this — after all, it's both human drivers and animals who are at risk.
Roselle Angwin
Place Barton House
Buckland Abbey
Yelverton