Meanings
plural fly grazings · alternative fly-grazing
- uncountableusuallyThe grazing of animals, such as horses, on land without the permission of the landowner.
Traveller horse owners are often singled out as the main contributors to reduced horse welfare with fly-grazing (unauthorised grazing on private land), tethered and abandoned horses regarded as Traveller practices.
2018, Michael Cockram, Tarjei Tennessen, Luis Bate, Renee Bergeron, Sylvie Cloutier, Andrew Fisher, Maria Hötzel, editors, Proceedings of the 52nd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology: Ethology for health and welfare, Wageningen Academic Publishers, page 603 more examples
These changes were regarded as essential to follow the example set by the Welsh Assembly to ensure that fly-grazing is tackled consistently and with the necessary resolve to protect horses from neglect and to safeguard the public from danger.
2019, W.H. Bassett, Tim Deveaux, Bassett's Environmental Health Procedures, CRC Press, page 707Fly-grazing is the same as fly-tipping: owners may no longer want the horse, but can’t afford - or don’t want - to pay the charges for having them legally slaughtered, so they let them out to starve or take their chances.
2021, Bella Bathurst, Field Work: What Land Does to People & What People Do to Land, Profile, page 42Defra Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Lord de Mauley, subsequently informed us that the Government supported Julian Sturdy MP’s Private Members’ Bill on the Control of Horses (England) 2014 which introduces several important changes to help tackle fly-grazing.
2015, House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, HC 942 - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee - Work of the Committee: 2010-15, The Stationery Office, page 26
Cite this entry
fly grazing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fly%20grazing
“fly grazing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fly%20grazing. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fly grazing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fly%20grazing.
Source: fly grazing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.