The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is officially 160 years old — or more than 25 in dog years — making it one of the oldest of the Big Apple’s homegrown non-profits.
To celebrate the occasion, the furry activist group is sharing blasts from the past and nosing into its archives, which is peppered with coverage by The Post.
The Post itself was 65 years old when the ASPCA was chartered in the Big Apple on April 10, 1866 by Manhattan native and shipbuilding magnate Henry Bergh, who was inspired to activism after witnessing the horrific abuse of carriage horses in the Big Apple and across Europe.
Check out some of The Post’s early coverage of the country’s first society for the protection of animals:
The Post covered the ASPCA’s first-ever public meeting, which was held at Clinton Hill less than two weeks after the society was founded.
Bergh was elected president, while a litany of other prominent men were voted as vice presidents — including Cooper Union Founder Peter Cooper and Rev. H. W. Bellows, the president of the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.
“The Superintendent of Police was requested to issue an order to the department, stating the objects of the society, and calling upon the police and the people to aid it in ensuring the law for the prevention of cruelty to animals,” The Post reported.
The ASPCA offered cash rewards out of Bergh’s own pockets for information leading to the arrest of anyone guilty of abusing “dumb animals” back in 1874.
In a notice wedged next to the latest financial news of the week, the nonprofit announced it would offer $50 for the “arrest and conviction of any gang of cock and dog fighters” and $25 for the conviction of any proprietor who used their property to house the abused animals. That’s about $1,422 and $711 in today’s cash, respectively.
“The public dog-pound has been abolished and the city dog-catchers are now out of office,” The Post reported in a notice titled “To Dog and Cat Owners.”
That was the year the ASPCA took charge of unclaimed pooches and cats and established the “Shelter for Lost, Strayed and Homeless Animals” — creating the model for which the city knows today.
Pets were held at the shelters for 48 hours, allowing owners to redeem the animals, while men wearing brown uniforms emblazoned with the words ASPCA took to the streets to rescue the lost critters.
The Post was on hand to cover the 1908 election for the Woman’s Auxiliary of the ASPCA, where “Age of Innocence” author and famous animal lover Edith Wharton was chosen to be a vice president.
Back in the days when horses were the main mode of transit, the ASPCA would litter the Big Apple with watering stations for the city’s hardworking carriage stallions.
In 1910, the society had 100 stations placed where “traffic is greatest,” The Post wrote, adding that “as many as eight hundred horses have been watered at one station in a single day.”
The ASPCA set off on a mission to curb out-of-control stray populations in 1973 by instituting the rule that all animals adopted through the society must be neutered.
The cost was just $15 for male dogs and $20 for female dogs, though the society was happy to neuter animals not adopted from them — though for a higher cost.
“Primarily, we hope to keep the animal population in New York City within reasonable bounds. It would be far better if there were fewer unwanted animals in the city,” The Post reported then-ASPCA president Charles Haines as saying.
