WILD ponies on Dartmoor are to be given contraceptive drugs, in a new trial to try and control their numbers and stop foals being sent straight to slaughter.

The pilot programme has been launched by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association. Charlotte Faulkner of the association said she had been working on the project for some ten years — it is now able to start thanks to an initial donation of drugs from chemical giant Pfizer.

Charlotte said: 'We are going to trial the drug to see if it works. It's been used for stopping mares coming in to season in Australia — in this country, there's a version they give to pigs.

'The mares will have two injections, four weeks apart, next spring.'

Charlotte said keeping the hardy ponies on Dartmoor was imperative to retain the moorland habitat as it was now, and to protect its wildlife.

'It's the balance between sheep, cattle and ponies over generations that have created this very special habitat that we know and love,' said Charlotte.

'Ponies are part of the moor's heritage — farmers haven't actually made money out of them for years, they keep them purely and simply because they are the right tool for the job and if you love Dartmoor, you do what you have to do to keep it how it is.'

Charlotte said if the trial worked, it would help to avoid young ponies, which were taken off the moor each autumn, going straight to slaughter.

She said gelding the stallions was not an effective method of controlling the wild pony population as the geldings tended to 'wander off' from the herds and if the contraceptive drug worked, it could prove the best answer.

She said the £12,000 project was desperately short of funding, as cash would be needed to carry out research to follow up the initial trial, which will involve about 20 mares.

'I've already sold my horse box to start it off — and World Horse Welfare must be thanked for their input in getting this off the ground, they've been amazing,' said Charlotte, who said there were now about 1,000 wild hill ponies left on Dartmoor.

'I think we've got to a critical number now,' she said.

l Anyone who would like to donate money to the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association for its project should go to http://www.dartmoorhillpony.com">www.dartmoorhillpony.com