Nice write up! Henry Bergh was awesome. I highly recommend a biography on him called “A Traitor to His Species”.
It’s a treasure trove of fascinating anecdotes about early animal rights advocacy. It’s been a minute since I read it, but these parts stuck with me:
Bergh didn’t start this work until he was like 52! Talk about a late bloomer. He spent the first 3⁄4 of his life drifting aimlessly about, dabbling in things but never making much of an impact or trying too hard at anything. That’s great inspiration for anyone who has ever thought it’s too late for them to make a change.
Bergh’s first attempt at stirring up popular opinion in favor of animals was by arresting people who were importing live turtles in disturbing ways (turtles flipped on their back with fins tied up.) I would have guessed he’d go to bat for a cute and cuddly animal first.
The ASPCA once got a big donation from a guy who was dying and was terrified of being reincarnated as a draft horse. He’d worked intimately with draft horses and knew how bad their lives were, and I guess he felt guilty. The shocking conditions for draft horses were some of the saddest portrayals in the book.
A “sport” where dogs competed to see who could kill the most rats was very popular in late 1800′s NYC.
At one point a method for euthanizing stray dogs involved rounding them up, putting them into a giant container, and lowering that container into the East River.
Nice write up! Henry Bergh was awesome. I highly recommend a biography on him called “A Traitor to His Species”.
It’s a treasure trove of fascinating anecdotes about early animal rights advocacy. It’s been a minute since I read it, but these parts stuck with me:
Bergh didn’t start this work until he was like 52! Talk about a late bloomer. He spent the first 3⁄4 of his life drifting aimlessly about, dabbling in things but never making much of an impact or trying too hard at anything. That’s great inspiration for anyone who has ever thought it’s too late for them to make a change.
Bergh’s first attempt at stirring up popular opinion in favor of animals was by arresting people who were importing live turtles in disturbing ways (turtles flipped on their back with fins tied up.) I would have guessed he’d go to bat for a cute and cuddly animal first.
The ASPCA once got a big donation from a guy who was dying and was terrified of being reincarnated as a draft horse. He’d worked intimately with draft horses and knew how bad their lives were, and I guess he felt guilty. The shocking conditions for draft horses were some of the saddest portrayals in the book.
A “sport” where dogs competed to see who could kill the most rats was very popular in late 1800′s NYC.
At one point a method for euthanizing stray dogs involved rounding them up, putting them into a giant container, and lowering that container into the East River.