Henry Bergh, the ASPCA, and the birth of animal welfare

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the oldest humane organization in the United States, is 151 years old today.

On April 10, 1866, the New York Legislature, at the urging of reformer Henry Bergh, approved a charter for the ASPCA, making it the first animal-welfare organization in America. Nine days later, the Legislature passed an anti-cruelty law in New York, and gave the ASPCA the power to enforce it.

Henry Bergh

Inspired in part by Bergh’s work, George Thorndike Angell (a native of my hometown of Southbridge, Mass.) founded the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals two years later. As the second-oldest humane society in the country, the MSPCA extended Bergh's influence beyond New York. Other animal-welfare groups followed.

Bergh became known as The Great Meddler because of his tireless devotion to protecting animals. An article on the ASPCA’s web site offers this anecdote about an incident that occurred in New York City in 1866, the year Bergh founded the ASPCA.

The driver of a cart laden with coal is whipping his horse. Passersby on the New York City street stop to gawk not so much at the weak, emaciated equine, but at the tall man, elegant in top hat and spats, who is explaining to the driver that it is now against the law to beat one's animal. Thus, America first encounters The Great Meddler.

After the ASPCA was founded, Bergh described his work this way in a letter to a reporter:

Day after day I am in slaughterhouses, or lying in wait at midnight with a squad of police near some dog pit. Lifting a fallen horse to his feet, penetrating buildings where I inspect collars and saddles for raw flesh, then lecturing in public schools to children, and again to adult societies. Thus my whole life is spent.

Bergh died in 1888, but his work continues. The New York-based organization he founded now has more than two million supporters across the country, making it one of the largest animal-welfare societies in the world. As Bergh once said: "Mercy to animals means mercy to mankind." Happy birthday, ASPCA.