PIT PONIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Pit
Ponies' Protection Society publishes many illuminating facts, some of which are probably unknown to your readers. I will quote four. At the present time there are over 56,000 ponies working in the mines. That from 1921 to 1925 the number killed and injured averaged 10,000 a year. These ponies never come to the surface, and live about seven years. There are only eight mine horse inspectors for all the mines, in England -and Wales.
A Bill is before the House to make it illegal to work these ponies for more than eight- hours a day, and to increase the number of inspectors. Why should there not be a Bill. to abolish them from the mines? We are told 480 pits have already dispensed with them in favour of mechanical haulage. Why not the others ? There is an invention called the scraper loader which although not suitable for every mine would be suitable for many, and the cost is only £400. Putting aside the ill-treatment which We know is often their lot, many of these ponies are of the wild Dartmoor breed to whom the miseries of their unnatural surroundings must be multiplied. The small sum that this new invention costs can surely not prohibit any mine from adopting it, but should it do so, then an appeal might be made to the humane public and the animal societies to help defray the expense and so deliver these 56,000 ponies from their miserable existence, and probably painful death.
The Council of Justice to Animals and Humane Slaughter Association.
42 Old Bond Street, London, TV. 1.
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