On this day in vegan history · April 10, 1866
New York Charters the First Humane Society
A diplomat came home from Russia unable to un-see what he'd watched happen to horses, and within months New York's legislature gave him the power to arrest people over it.
The facts
- Date chartered
- April 10, 1866
- Founder
- Henry Bergh, diplomat and philanthropist
- Follow-up law
- New York's first anti-cruelty statute, April 19, 1866, enforced by the ASPCA
- Bergh's salary as president
- None; he served without pay
On April 10, 1866, the New York State legislature granted Henry Bergh a charter incorporating the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the first humane organization in the country. Bergh had served in a diplomatic post at the Russian court of Czar Alexander II, where he was horrified to watch work horses beaten by their drivers. Back in New York, he made his case in public at a February 8, 1866 meeting at Clinton Hall, pleading on behalf of what he called 'these mute servants of mankind.' Nine days after the charter passed, on April 19, 1866, New York enacted the state's first anti-cruelty law and gave the new ASPCA the authority to enforce it. Bergh ran the society as its president and took no salary for the work.
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.
-
these mute servants of mankind
Henry Bergh, speech at Clinton Hall, New York City, February 8, 1866
Source: History.com -
This is a matter purely of conscience; it has no perplexing side issues
Henry Bergh, speech at Clinton Hall, New York City, February 8, 1866
Source: History.com
Why it still matters
The ASPCA became the model that dozens of American humane societies copied in the following decades, and it established the idea, still radical at the time, that cruelty to an animal was the law's business, not just a private matter of conscience.
Sources
This history is still being written.
Every morning the brief covers what moved veganism forward, and every day one more verified piece of that story joins this almanac. Free, and tomorrow’s lands in your inbox.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.