Our founder - Ada Cole
In the spring of 1911, Ada Cole stood on the docks in Antwerp, Belgium. The sight that met her eyes led to the foundation of World 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 pole-axed in a Belgian abattoir. What she saw that day horrified her so much that she began a campaign that was to consume her for the rest of her life.
Ada’s efforts to raise awareness of the export of horses for slaughter came to fruition in 1914 with an Act of Parliament (a new law), 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 be equipped to humanely end their lives.
During the First World War Ada worked as a nurse and was arrested for helping allied prisoners escape. She spent three months in a German prison with a death sentence and it was only the armistice that saved her life. In January 1919, at the age of 58, Ada left Belgium to return to Norfolk. In her absence, not only had the 1914 Act remained unenforced, but it had failed to be enacted.
She lobbied tirelessly for a carcase trade and sought, above all, an Act of Parliament that would finally put a stop to the traffic of British horses for slaughter abroad. During this time another society had been formed, which was independent of the RSPCA or Ada Cole’s Old Horse Traffic Committee. At first it was called the National Council Against the Export of Horses for Butchery and later became the National Council for Animal Welfare.
Ada recognised 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 and subsequently the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH).
For the next three years Ada worked tirelessly, attempting to introduce her own Bill but when the RSPCA supplied humane killers for the notorious Parisian slaughterhouse Vaugirard, the Government rejected Ada’s bill on the grounds that the problems no longer existed.
She was exhausted, felt beaten and on 17 October 1930 she died in the room next to her office. She was 70 years old.
Seven years later the Exportation of Horses Act, drafted by Sir George Cockerill, first Honorary Director of the ILPH (1931-1957), came into being. This Act established the principle of Minimum Values - that no horse under a certain value could be exported live from Britain - which fulfilled Ada Cole’s dream and has effectively ended the trafficking of live horses from Britain.
Since then, the charity has grown, becoming an international organisation, seeking to improve the welfare of horses around the world. However, we have not forgotten Ada Cole's determination and World Horse Welfare's Make a Noise campaign aims to bring an end to the long distance transportation of horses to slaughter in Europe.
