Dartmoor resident slams tourists showing 'no respect' to foal and mother

A Dartmoor resident who rescued a new-born foal has issued a plea to thoughtless tourists who are stressing out the local wildlife. Rachael Lamb, from Postbridge in the centre of the remote moor, helped a very young foal that got itself trapped in wire fence.

Thankfully the animal was fine and able to return to its mother. But Rachael says the behaviour of a family who stopped to take pictures caused the mother uneccessary stress.

She has issued a plea to visitors to the moor to think about their actions around animals, treat them with dignity and not as objects to be laughed and pointed at.

She said: "Although all the baby animals are very cute, they are not actually here for your amusement," she posted online. "This is not a zoo/safari Park."

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Her plea comes after she found the vulnerable creature trapped in a wire fence. "A lovely lady stopped and we got it up and free," she said. "Then when I drove back past 10 mins later it had fallen, rolled and done the same again.

"I stopped and untangled it and carried it to a flat area where it couldn't tangle itself again. The mare was obviously stressed but happy with my help. I settled it down and left them to recover as the foal was exhausted. We know the farmers and I called my husband to call them so I knew it would be ok as they were on their way.

"As I walked back to the car, a big 4x4 pulled up right next to the foal and its mum, wound down the windows and all hung out the car (children and adults) with their phones laughing and joking tying to film the poor exhausted foal and its already but now even more stressed mother!! I did go back to them and asked that they didn't do that as the foal wasn't in a good way and and the mare was distressed and I suggested they moved on."

Rachael says it is not about taking photos, as she is a keen photographer of wildlife herself, but about respect. The photo she took was to alert the farmers so they knew where the foal was.

"If the animal is in labour, just given birth or looking stressed please leave them be and let them do what they are trying to do. Imagine having a baby then all of a sudden people are crowding round pointing their phones at you trying to take photos of you and your precious new-born. It's not nice."