Henry Bergh didn’t seem like the sort of person who would commit his life to protect countless creatures. The son of a wealthy shipbuilder, he led a life of leisure and inherited prosperity and had little experience in public service. He'd never even owned or had a pet.
However, after witnessing the harsh lashing of a horse, too many workhorses thrashed, and too many dogs chained to treadmills for labor, he became a campaigner for the defenseless—a one-person champion of animal rights—ultimately founding the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
A Scion Finds His Purpose
Henry Bergh was born in New York City on Aug. 29, 1813. His father Christian Bergh (1763–1843), designed and built sailing ships in Lower Manhattan and even built U.S. Navy ships for the War of 1812. His most famous ship, the President, was a 44-gun frigate commissioned by the U.S. Congress.
Henry entered Columbia College to study law in 1830, and, in 1863, Bergh was appointed to a diplomatic post at the Russian court of Czar Alexander II. In his new post as secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg, Bergh moved freely and comfortably in Russia’s upper echelons. On the streets of St. Petersburg, he watched in revulsion as a Russian peasant cruelly beat his horse with a sharp stick. He later said that the cries of the horse sounded as if they were the suffering of a tortured human.
Bergh quit his diplomatic post in 1865, and after his resignation, he took a detour to London to meet with the Earl of Harrowby, who was serving as president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The meeting was an enlightening event in Bergh’s life: He would dedicate what was left of it standing up against naked violence to animals.
Forms the ASPCA
On April 10, 1866, the ASPCA was formed, and Bergh, serving as its first president, immediately went to work on behalf of the neglected and mistreated animals of New York City. A scant nine days later, the ASPCA was given the right to enforce revisions to an overhauled anticruelty bill in New York State.
The society was empowered with powers of prosecution and arrest. In this, Bergh began a campaign to expose the prevalence of illegal dogfighting events and, in particular, underground “rat fights” taking place in the basement of Sportsmen’s Hall, a tavern at 273 Water Street in Lower Manhattan. “Rat fights” pitted a terrier against as many as 100 rats. The battles ended when every rat was destroyed, or, in some cases, when they dog was killed. Bulldogs were also pitted against chained bears in another especially barbaric form of entertainment. Provoked by the carnage of such sights, it took Bergh several years to be able to gather enough evidence to force the closing of the Sportsmen’s Hall.
The world’s first horse-drawn street railway started up in New York City on Nov. 14, 1832, and, post-Civil War, horses were still heavily coupled to its economic livelihood, with tens of thousands of workhorses pulling carts and wagons on cobblestone streets and horse-drawn muscle powering streetcars.
Berg devised and implemented a number of plans to improve treatment of the city’s large horse population, including drinking troughs to combat exhaustion and dehydration, as well as a motorized horse ambulance to transport ailing and injured animals to stables or veterinarians. Additionally, Bergh invented a canvas sling to rescue horses that had slipped into the river or gotten caught in a bad predicament. This sling was used to save injured horses during World War I.
Bergh also worked assiduously to halt the practice of dog-powered treadmills, including turnspits, which bred small terrier mixes to run and spin a treadmill spit so that beef roasts would cook evenly over a fire pit. Bergh and his ASPCA strived to get all dogs licensed, and the license fees were used to operate several shelters, where abandoned and injured dogs could find sanctuary. Cats were included in the effort, although cats did not need a license. The society, too, sought more humane methods to rid the streets of unwelcome dogs.
ASPCA members rescuing a rooster after a cockfighting ring bust in Queens, N.Y. (ASPCA)
ASPCA members rescuing a rooster after a cockfighting ring bust in Queens, N.Y. (ASPCA)
Seemingly indefatigable, Bergh exposed the grotesque treatment of cattle in slaughterhouses and swill dairies, where cows were fed the leftover wastes of breweries and distilleries. Some of these cows subsequently produced milk believed to cause diseases. He drafted and introduced a dog-and cockfighting bill that passed, later revised to outlaw all forms of animal fighting. Bergh and his society are also credited with helping promote the use of clay pigeons in trapshooting as a humane alternative to real pigeon shoots.
A Man of Goodness; Respected by Adversaries
On March 12, 1888, Henry Bergh died at age 74 in Manhattan. Throughout his life, he would be equally praised and detested for his passions, at times, even by the same person. When his time-honored adversary and reluctant admirer P.T. Barnum died in 1891, he willed a large amount of money to the ASPCA along with $1,000 to the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut for a statue honoring Bergh.“It may almost be said of Henry Bergh that he has invented a new type of goodness, since invention is only the perception and application of truths that are eternal.”
Between 1866 and 1888, the year of his death, Bergh and his alliance prosecuted roughly 12,000 cases of cruelty to animals. From its New York City headquarters, the ASPCA’s humane law enforcement agents responded to animal cruelty complaints for 147 years until laying off its agents by January 2014.
Still one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the world, the ASCPA continues Bergh’s mission to rescue, shelter, and look after animals in need.
