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One of the first humane organizations in America, founded shortly after the Civil War, the MSPCA-Angell has seen vast changes in society, the environment, and the roles of animals in our lives. It has helped make laws and set standards that have fundamentally shaped our sense of kindness and care for animals – and for one another.juan
Today, the MSPCA-Angell continues to rescue, shelter, protect, heal, and advocate for more animals than any other American humane organization, giving hands-on care to many thousands of animals each year. We also provide emergency assistance and strategic help for animal-protection groups across the country and around the globe. Through our legislative work, humane-education efforts, and community-based assistance initiatives, we help create lasting change for animals and people.
In 1641, just 20 years after the landing at Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims included in their Body of Liberties safeguards to protect all living creatures. Sadly, their good intentions created few real protective benefits for the nation’s domestic, wild, and labor animals. In early America, as in the rest of the world, animals thrived — or suffered — according to the whims of the people who came into their lives. These creatures had no voice, no one to speak for them. Then, one extraordinary day in 1868, that powerlessness ended with George Thorndike Angell.
George Thorndike Angell, a Boston lawyer, founds the MSPCA and becomes its first president on March 23, after reading about an instance of cruelty in which two horses — each pulling two riders over 40 miles of rough roads — were raced to death. Angell’s high-profile protest of the deadly race is joined by influential Bostonian Emily Appleton, and in less than a month 1,200 citizens
Within three years of the MSPCA’s founding, Angell’s vision gathers wide support, and animal-protection societies spring up in 24 American cities. By 1871, anticruelty statutes are enacted from Connecticut to California. The fledgling humane movement has grown wings and taken flight.
The first American Band of Mercy — a group of school children who pledge to be kind to animals and to keep them from cruel usage — is formed. Soon there are hundreds of Bands of Mercy nationwide, totaling 250,000 children.
First official headquarters of the MSPCA is dedicated at 19 Milk St., Boston.
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A 10,000-ton liberty ship, the SS George T. Angell, is christened.Brockton branch of the MSPCA opens.
Dr. Eric Hansen elected third MSPCA president.
MSPCA assumes operation of the Foote Memorial Animal Shelter on Martha’s Vineyard.
Springfield Animal Hospital rededicated as Rowley Memorial Animal Hospital, now Angell-Western New England.
