Back to Our Roots

by Nathan Winograd | Apr 30, 2008

How the Humane Movement Got Lost and Then Found Its Way Again

In 1866, Henry Bergh, the son of a wealthy New York City shipbuilder, started the nation’s first humane society, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. With top hat and cane, gentleman-turned-humane officer Henry Bergh began patrolling the streets of New York City in an effort to protect animals. Within two years of the ASPCA’s incorporation, animals were better cared for, and water troughs and buckets for thirsty horses could be seen throughout the city. The modern humane movement was born. 

And while early humane efforts often focused on protecting “working” animals such as carriage horses and others, Bergh’s SPCA labored equally hard to protect dogs from being killed at the local pound. In New York City, for example, the dog pound was nothing more than a rough shed where as many as 300 dogs were kept with little or no shelter and no food or water. The dogs were left lying in their own waste, tied up in close proximity, and sometimes fighting each other until they were killed. Henry Bergh battled with the city, advocating for more humane conditions, and in each instance won. 

Tired of fighting Bergh, New York City offered Bergh’s ASPCA money to run the dog pound. But Henry Bergh refused. He believed the SPCA he created was a tool to champion and protect life, not to end it. Bergh’s answer was clear. “This Society,” he wrote, “could not stultify its principles so far as to encourage the tortures which the proposed give rise to…” Henry Bergh would not allow his ASPCA to do the city’s bidding in killing unwanted dogs. 

Whether fighting for the rights of animals or protecting stray dogs, Bergh’s ASPCA grew in both scope and influence. In a very short period of time, Canada and 25 states and territories across North America had used the ASPCA as a model for their own independent humane societies and SPCAs and the numbers continued to grow. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, virtually every major city in the United States had an SPCA or humane society. And all of them owed their existence and their platform to a single man—Henry Bergh. But then, something happened. Somewhere along the path, the humane movement lost its way. 

Following Henry Bergh’s death—and contrary to his wishes—the ASPCA capitulated and accepted a contract from New York City to run the dog pound. It was a tragic mistake. In little more than a decade, animal sheltering became the ASPCA’s primary role. By 1910, the ASPCA was doing little more than impounding dogs and cats on behalf of the city, with all but a small percentage put to death. Other SPCAs around the nation followed. The guaranteed source of income provided by contracts helped sway many SPCAs and humane societies to abandon their traditional platforms of advocacy and cruelty prosecutions in favor of administering dog control for cities and counties. In virtually every American city or county, the pound work was placed in the hands of the humane society. Within a decade or two, most mainstream humane societies and SPCAs did little more than kill dogs and cats. 

From the ASPCA in New York City to humane societies throughout California, the twentieth century saw killing become the centerpiece of shelter strategy. It is the paradigm we live with to this very day. And while many of these organizations became very large and influential, they also became bureaucratic, with none of the zeal for reform that characterized the movement’s early founders. A critic of this shift, Ed Duvin, summarized it accurately:

Historically, SPCAs made the tragic mistake of moving from compassionate oversight of animal control agencies to operating the majority of kill shelters. The consequences in terms of resource allocation and sacrificing a coherent moral foundation have been devastating. 

Put more bluntly, when the ASPCA took over the pound contract in New York City following Henry Bergh’s death, it began a century of squandering not only his life work, but more significantly the ASPCA’s vast potential. Bergh’s ideal of a humane agency founded to save the lives of animals was replaced with shelters across the country whose primary purpose was—and unfortunately in some places, still is—killing animals, whether or not they are suffering. 

For far too many years, shelters across the U.S. have routinely killed millions of dogs and cats. Many of these animals were healthy and friendly, and would have made excellent companions had they been afforded a little bit of space and time—space and time enough to find a loving home. But with holding periods ranging from zero to 10 days, most did not, under the outdated belief that solutions were impossible, no one would adopt them, and the best we can do for homeless animals is provide a quick death behind closed doors. 

But thankfully, we are coming full circle. Shelters are moving back to their roots. Thanks to the No Kill movement, shelters are challenging the status quo. These new leaders, bringing with them a deep and abiding love for animals and a “can do” attitude, are taking on positions of leadership at SPCAs, humane societies, and animal control shelters across the nation. With no allegiance to the status quo or faith in conventional “wisdom,” new leaders are causing dog and cat deaths to plummet in cities and counties by rejecting the “adopt some and kill the rest” inertia of the past 100 years. 

And while New York City is used to setting trends, it is currently being swallowed up by one. The No Kill movement, he would no doubt have championed, is now challenging the status quo in Henry Bergh’s hometown. After more than a century of silence, the voice of compassion remaking itself heard. 

The article was adapted from the book Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America (Almaden: 2007) by Nathan J. Winograd. For more information, visit www.nathanwinograd.com.