A FUMING dog walker claims Winnie-the-Pooh’s idyllic Hundred Acre Wood is being ruined – by too many animals.

Jennifer Kersey, 65, is furious that her morning strolls are being spoiled by sheep, cattle and ponies which roam freely in Ashdown Forest.

The beauty spot was the inspiration for the setting of A A Milne’s cherished tales about Pooh and Christopher Robin.

Engineering company administrator Jennifer lives in Hadlow Down. She has been in the area for nearly 40 years and claims the wood is now being ruined by animals.

She said: “Around 2004 or 2005 conservators decided to fence off 1,500 metres of Ashdown Forest and put a large amount of farm animals there.

“The cows were supposed to trample all the bracken down, and the sheep were supposed to eat all the unwanted plants but they just eat the grass.

“They erected enclosures everywhere and put very thin electrical wire up around them. You are always on edge and worrying if your dogs are going to run into it.”

Jennifer, who walks through the forest every morning with her two rescue farm collies Freya and Lenny, accused local authorities of turning the area into a “massive farm”.

She said: “People don’t walk their dogs there any more because they chase the sheep.

“People have had their much-loved dogs shot as a result, and fined huge amounts by farmers for mauling their sheep.

“The animals stink and make horrible piles of their excretions everywhere.

“The only benefit of this is to the blowfly and dung beetle population, as far as I can tell.

“The animals come along in spring like a swarm of locusts in their vast numbers, driving deer elsewhere and often forcing them on to the roads.

“In the autumn I have witnessed the sheep greedily eating all the acorns which takes away the winter feed supply for many wild animals.

“How is that all right?”

Jennifer’s attempts to bring the issue to the attention of the local authorities have so far been rebuffed.

In an email this week, Green Wealden district councillor Keith Obbard wrote: “It is a shame that Jennifer has lived in the area for 40 years, but seemingly doesn’t know anything about the Ashdown Forest.

“It is a Special Conservation Area, being a habitat of lowland heathland, which is quite rare in Britain, and indeed in Europe.

“Grazing with sheep, cattle and horses is part of the management of the forest.”

Councillor Obbard suggested she went to two nearby parks that have been set aside for dog walkers.

He added: “That is where people who don’t want to risk stepping on cattle poo can exercise their dogs without concern, and where there is no risk of the dogs killing sheep, which is what unfortunately happens all too often.”

However, Jennifer says that those spaces are far too small for her and her dogs.

She said: “It would not even be a warm up for me.

“Ashdown Forest is great if can use all of it, because you can walk miles and not cross your path.”

To make matters worse, Jennifer is convinced that the conservation effort is a huge waste of money.

She added: “I can’t see the point to be honest. They have spent council tax payers money doing it. I think the money would have been much better spent in other ways.

“Most of the public all feel the same - it’s not the best way to spend a lot of our money.”