On this day in vegan history · March 12, 1888
The Friend to Every Friendless Beast Dies
Henry Bergh spent twenty-two years standing in New York's streets between carriage horses and the men who beat them, and on this day the fight lost the man who started it.
The facts
- Died
- March 12, 1888, in New York City, age 74
- Founded ASPCA
- April 10, 1866, chartered by the New York state legislature
- Years leading it
- 22, from founding until his death
- Compensation
- None, he served as president for no financial pay
Henry Bergh died in New York City on March 12, 1888, at the age of 74. Twenty-two years earlier, on April 10, 1866, the New York state legislature had granted an act of incorporation to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with Bergh as its president, coming just days after the state passed the first effective anti-cruelty law in the country. In between, he made himself a fixture on the streets of Manhattan, most famously during the 1872 horse flu outbreak, when he stood in a top hat in the middle of traffic and turned back trolleys and wagons pulled by sick horses. He took no salary for running the society he had built from nothing.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The friend to every friendless beast.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in a poem eulogizing Bergh
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Bergh's ASPCA became the template other American cities copied, turning cruelty to animals from a private matter into something a court could actually punish.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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