[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The Secretary of the Pit Ponies Protection Society has proved that during four years there were no fewer than 382 cases of ill-treatment to these animals fined in the Courts, and we may safely assume that for every case known there must be at least double that number that were undiscovered. Allowing, however, that all the drivers are the kindest of youths, even then, the unnatural life under the earth must be an inferno to these poor creatures. A man becomes a miner by his own free will, the Navy and Army and agricultural work are open to him, but he chooses employment in a pit during the day knowing that he leaves it for fresh air every evening.
The majority of these ponies are taken from free and natural conditions and imprisoned for life in surroundings that must be horrible and terrifying to them. Their presence might be a terrible necessity, but now that machinery can be success- fully substituted, there is no excuse for there not being a law to compel its installation. Why delay this most necessary reform am, Sir, &c.,
VIOLET WOOD (Secretary).
C.J.A.H.S.A., 42 Old Bond Street, London, W. 1.
[We hope the day is not far distant when no ponies will be employed below ground.—En. Spectator.]
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