Who was Ada Cole?
Ada Cole was an exceptional lady. She lived from 1860 until 1930, and throughout her life she worked tirelessly to change the way all animals, and especially horses, were treated.
In particular, she campaigned passionately to end the suffering of horses that were sent from Britain to Europe to be slaughtered for meat.
She also cared very much for people. During World War I, which lasted from 1914 - 1918, Ada worked for the Red Cross, helping nurse soldiers who had been wounded in battle. She risked her life to help escaped prisoners of war reach safety and was imprisoned by the Germans when they discovered her activities.
Ada witnessed the unloading of a shipload of aged, sick and injured horses that had been sent from Britain to Belgium in 1911. They were mostly working horses that were no longer useful and were destined to be slaughtered for meat or used for scientific research. She was so appalled by what she saw that from then on she made it her mission to end the terrible suffering of the thousands of horses who were exported in this way every year.
It was a long process, involving the gradual introduction of laws to impose restrictions on the horse dealers, the recruitment of supporters both in Britain and abroad and the founding of the International League to Prevent the Export of Horses for Butchery (later renamed the International League for the Protection of Horses).
Ada spent virtually all her time and money on the campaign, despite the fact that she suffered with tuberculosis through most of her adult life. When she died in 1930, one newspaper described her as "worn to the end of her strength by years of indomitable struggle".
Very sadly, despite the progress that had been made during her lifetime, Ada did not live to see the final fruits of her labour. The Export of Horses Act was made law in 1937 and effectively stopped the trade of live horses from Britain to European slaughter houses.
The Ada Cole Memorial Stables was set up in 1932 to provide a home for needy equines close to London, which Ada had indicated as one of her hopes while she was alive. The Stables provided a caring home for just some of the old, injured, sick and abused horses and ponies that had spent their lives working in the streets of the capital. Horses that would almost certainly have ended up being sent abroad for slaughter if it weren't for the hard work and determination of Ada Cole to protect them.
>back
