People celebrating Hallowe’en are being urged not to dump pumpkins on the Quantock Hills, which rangers say has become ‘a significant issue’ in recent years.

Torn-up pumpkin pieces have been left lying around or deliberately dumped, running a risk of harming wildlife, including the Exmoor ponies that roam the hills.

“A couple of years ago we had a case of 30 to 40 carved pumpkins stuffed into trees at Dead Woman’s Ditch with tea lights still inside them,” said Chris Edwards, Quantock Hills AONB manager.

He added: “We are not aware that the classic orange pumpkin is poisonous to horses, sheep or wildlife, although it’s clear that unripe pumpkin or other squash varieties can be very harmful.”

It is a problem for people as well as for animals: “Fly-tipping them on the hills certainly adds to the ponies’ expectation of being fed rather than grazing the native vegetation, and this has led to aggressive behaviour to people and cars at parking areas,” said Chris.

“This illegal fly-tipping has led to piles of rotting pumpkin at popular visitor locations and additional work for our rangers and volunteers in clearing them up.

“To give one example, someone kindly broke their pumpkins into pieces, thinking it would be safer for the animals eating them, but it was even more of a pain to pick up and remove.

“It may seem like an easy option to chuck pumpkins out on the hills after a Hallowe’en party, and some people might feel they are doing a good thing, but fly-tipping and littering are crimes, and it is likely that anyone caught doing this would be fined or prosecuted.”

Instead, the ranger’s message is to recycle or compost pumpkins at home and not take them up onto the Quantocks before or after Hallowe’en.