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KF5JRV > TODAY 10.04.19 12:22l 51 Lines 2510 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34258_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 10
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190410/1120Z 34258@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On April 10, 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by philanthropist and
diplomat Henry Bergh, 54.
In 1863, Bergh had been appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to a
diplomatic post at the Russian court of Czar Alexander II. It was there
that he was horrified to witness work horses beaten by their peasant
drivers. En route back to America, a June 1865 visit to the Royal
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London awakened his
determination to secure a charter not only to incorporate the ASPCA but
to exercise the power to arrest and prosecute violators of the law.
Back in New York, Bergh pleaded on behalf of “these mute servants of
mankindö at a February 8, 1866, meeting at Clinton Hall. He argued that
protecting animals was an issue that crossed party lines and class
boundaries. “This is a matter purely of conscience; it has no perplexing
side issues,ö he said. “It is a moral question in all its aspects.ö The
speech prompted a number of dignitaries to sign his “Declaration of the
Rights of Animals.ö
Bergh’s impassioned accounts of the horrors inflicted on animals
convinced the New York State legislature to pass the charter
incorporating the ASPCA on April 10, 1866. Nine days later, the first
effective anti-cruelty law in the United States was passed, allowing the
ASPCA to investigate complaints of animal cruelty and to make arrests.
Bergh was a hands-on reformer, becoming a familiar sight on the streets
and in the courtrooms of New York. He regularly inspected slaughter
houses, worked with police to close down dog- and rat-fighting pits and
lectured in schools and to adult societies. In 1867, the ASPCA
established and operated the nation’s first ambulance for horses.
As the pioneer and innovator of the humane movement, the ASPCA quickly
became the model for more than 25 other humane organizations in the
United States and Canada. And by the time Bergh died in 1888, 37 of the
38 states in the Union had passed anti-cruelty laws.
Bergh’s dramatic street rescues of mistreated horses and livestock
served as a model for those trying to protect abused children. After
Mary Ellen McCormack, 9, was found tied to a bed and brutally beaten by
her foster parents in 1874, activists founded the New York Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Bergh served as one of the
group’s first vice presidents.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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