Selfie-Taking Tourists Caused Newborn Pony to Fall From Cliff
People taking selfies with ponies at a tourist hotspot reportedly caused a newborn pony to fall to its death from a cliff.
According to the BBC, a farmer has claimed a foal tripped over the edge of a cliff in the picturesque village of Rhossli in Swansea, Wales — after tourists crowded the newborn to take photos.
Farmer Nicky Beynon and his family have cared for the horses that have grazed the cliffs in Rhossli for generations. However, his gypsy cob ponies are being continually harassed and overwhelmed by visitors trying to take selfies up close with them.
“They all want to take a photograph, but they don’t realize what they’re doing — the amount of stress they’re putting on the animal,” Beynon, who farms in Llangennith and Rhossili, tells the BBC.
‘The Foal was Crowded by People Taking Photographs’
In one incident, that reportedly took place in April, Beynon says that selfie-taking tourists caused a newborn foal’s death.
The farmer says the foal’s mother gave birth “a couple-hundred yards” from the cliff edge and visitors began crowding them “trying to take photographs and forced her closer and closer to the edge.”
The animals were so close to the cliff edge that the newborn foal ended up tripping and plummeting to its death — as it tried to stand up for the first time,
“All of a sudden, the newborn is staggering to its feet, trying to learn how to stand up, and trips over the edge,” Beynon tells the BBC.
“The mare who lost her foal over the cliff, she’s quite a sharp sort of sensitive mare. The foal had gone over about half an hour before I found her and she was just going ballistic.
“She knew the foal had just vanished.”
The farmer says that he had to take all his mares home following the tragic incident so they could foal safely. Tourists are now being warned not to touch the ponies in the area.
Drones and Cameras are Disturbing Animals
In another incident in 2022, Beynon says he was was forced to remove the ponies from the area after an individual flew a drone “about 10 feet above her.”
The farmer describes how the pony “couldn’t make out where this noise was coming from and she was sort of spinning around.”
Benyon also says that the man controlling the drone could not grasp the stress he was putting the pony under.
“There’s people flying drones there every day, and these things are capable of filming from hundreds of feet away, the same thing with zoom lenses,” Benyon says.
“There’s no need to touch the horse or get so close.”
PetaPixel previously reported on a pair of tourists who accidentally killed a seal pup after dragging the animal from the ocean so they could take a selfie with it.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
