In The Saddle

We must be their voice.

THE International League for the Protection of Horses has come a long way since Ada Cole founded the charity in 1927 and spoke the words written above, but it is hard to believe that decades later the slaughterhouse issue is still at the top of their agenda.

The fact that more than 120,000 horses, ponies and donkeys still travel many thousands of miles across Europe from their country of origin to their final destination for slaughter without rest, food and water is unacceptable to the ILPH.

They will continue to fight for the welfare of those horses well into the 21st Century as Ada did all those years ago.

"Little did Ada think, in the spring of 1911, as she stood on the docks in Antwerp, Belgium, that what she was about to witness would lead to a movement that would continue into the next century," said Linda Freebrey, Press officer for the ILPH.

"There are now five recovery and rehabilitation centres in the United Kingdom - the Glenda Spooner Farm is just across the border at Hoarwithy in Herefordshire - which are dedicated to preventing the ill treatment of horses.

"Run purely by donations, it has grown to become the world's leading international equine welfare charity."

There are 15 full-time ILPH field officers, nearly all of whom are former mounted police officers, to investigate cases of cruelty and neglect, inspect markets and ports and check the horses on the ILPH horse loan scheme.

Nearly 1,700 rehabilitated horses and ponies are currently in approved homes.

Worldwide, the ILPH runs educational and training courses in saddlery, farriery, veterinary care and nutrition to combat the major causes of equine suffering and help the owners to help themselves.

Linda says the ILPH is particularly proud of the success of a joint project in Mexico with the donkey sanctuary and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

The project's main aim is to assist in the funding of three treatment teams - two based in Mexico City and the third based in Tlaxcala - which work tirelessly to assist with the welfare and treatment of many equines in and around Mexico City.

The charity has its own cruelty hotline designed to protect horses from abuse and alleviate their suffering by rehabilitating, campaigning and educating worldwide and have worked hard for the new animal transportation regulation which was adopted by the European Commission last month.

What Ada saw that day, almost 100 years ago, was to change the course of horse welfare.

In the midst of the bustle of a busy dockside she noticed old and work-worn British horses shuffling off a cargo boat on their painful journey to be killed in a Belgian abattoir.

While staying with her sister Effie she saw the pitiful column of horses on the Antwerp docks, and more in the Place de la Duchesse, where they stood heads bowed, or collapsed on the cobbles, waiting for somebody to pay a pittance to eek out the their last working hours on Belgian soil.

At the time the trade was not illegal, and as the numbers of redundant horses increased due to the rise in urban mechanisation, so did the numbers that were exported for meat to foreign abattoirs.

Ada lobbied politicians, raised funds and worked tirelessly to heighten awareness of the callous and undignified end that these loyal creatures were having to endure.

People did not want to hear of the scenes that she had witnessed - "It is your duty to hear," she would point out angrily. "It is because people do not want to hear that nothing is done. I am going to make people listen!"

Ada's efforts in raising public awareness to the export of horses for slaughter came to fruition in 1914, with an Act of Parliament which amended an 1898 Government Order and prohibited the export of horses unless a veterinary inspector certified the animals "to be capable of being conveyed and disembarked without cruelty". It also stated that every vessel carrying horses should carry a proper humane killer.

However, the 1914 Act remained unenforced, Ada was enraged, not by the consumption of horsemeat, but the indifferent and thoughtless treatment of the poor creatures at the end of their lives.

Knowing full well that there was little point standing on a dockside, ships or in slaughterhouses complaining, she only went to these places to research and gather information as evidence to strengthen her argument. What she needed was political clout, political capital, and above all political allies.

Through the pages of the Manchester Guardian, who published her reports, she gained the ears of influential men and woman and Members of Parliament.

She lobbied tirelessly for a carcase trade and sought, above all, an act of Parliament which would finally put a stop to the traffic of British horses for slaughter abroad.

She was tough, impossible to intimidate and countered every argument thrown at her with demonstrable fact. It was this determination and resilience that drew a core of influential friends to her cause.

It was by then the 1920s, and mechanisation was taking over. Cars and tractors rolled off factory production lines, and horses were shipped off to foreign abattoirs for slaughter.

During this time another society had been formed independent of the RSPCA or Ada Cole's Old Horse Traffic Committee, as it was then known. At first it was called the National Council Against the Export of Horses for Butchery.

It was founded in Lady Simeon's house in Wilton Crescent and later became the National Council for Animal Welfare.

Ada recognized that this new society had the money and social influence that she needed and eventually, in 1927, the two societies merged becoming the International League Against the Export of Horses for Butchery.

In July, 1930, she made a speech to the RSPCA council, on which she had sat since 1928, which was ruled out of order. She was exhausted, felt beaten by the RSPCA and on October 16,1930 she attended her last council meeting.

The next day she died in her room next to her office at the age of 70.

In 1937, Ada's dream became a reality and The Exportation of Horses Act came in, which establishes the principle of Minimum Values, which effectively stopped the export of horses from the UK for slaughter.

Today, in the 21st Century, horses bred in former Soviet states and Eastern bloc countries stream into Europe in their thousands each year, mainly by road destined for Western tables.

The ILPH still works tirelessly as did Ada, to improve equine welfare both at home and abroad by influencing the legislative process through direct government contact and political lobbying.

Ada would certainly have been surprised to know that in her wake she would be followed by men and women of real resolve, moved, like her not by sentiment but by a sense of right and decency and the acknowledgement of a moral obligation.

We need volunteers

EDWINA Saunders is chairman of the volunteer team at the Glenda Spooner Farm and she is appealing for more help.

"We need some dedicated people who are willing to give up a few hours a week to help at the centre which is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays," said Mrs Saunders.

There are all sorts of breeds at Hoarwithy - from neglected thoroughbreds to tiny Shetland ponies - and although the charity tries to re-home as many horses as they can, it's not always possible. They may be too old for example or the charity may choose to keep them as "escort" horses.

If anyone is interested in helping they can ring Mrs Saunders on 01600 750677.