Henry Bergh.
Born in 1823.
The everyday life of Henry Bergh, the animal's friend, has been an
expression of sympathy with "our poor earth-born companions and
fellow-mortals," the dumb creatures. He was born in the city of New
York, the son of a wealthy ship builder, who was also a native of the
Empire state and an old-time resident of the city of New York.
He received a superior education. In 1862 he was appointed secretary of
legation at St. Petersburg, and there he began that active interference
in behalf of the right of animals to kind treatment, which has given him
a reputation as wide as civilization.
The society of which Mr. Bergh was the founder, is modeled largely after
the English Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals, in
London.
Returning to New York in 1864, he spent a year in maturing his plans for
the establishment of means to check and prevent cruelty to animals. The
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was instituted
in 1865. In 1866 it was given by statute the power of prosecution and
even arrest, a power which it still possesses. Mr. Bergh has been its
president since its inception, and its invaluable services to beast, and
man as wellÑfor men are made better by being more humaneÑare largely due
to his resolution, tact and perseverance. He stands six feet high, and
his appearance and carriage denote a power of will which readily
commands respect.
But his appeal to the moral sense and his disinterestedness are the
principal elements of his success. He receives no salary for his work,
freely gives his time and energies to it, and the public knowing this to
be the case, respect and honor the man who makes the sacrifice.
The statute of 1866 constitutes Mr. Bergh an assistant of the
attorney-general in the city of New York, and assistant of the
attorney-general of the State, in the enforcement of the laws against
cruelty to animals.
He is a member of the bar, and effective in the courtroom, as well as in
interferences in behalf of animals in the public streets and elsewhere,
and on the public platform as a lecturer enforcing the wisdom and duty
of humane feeling and action.
The New York society has nearly four hundred workers in the state.
Nearly all the states in the Union have founded similar organizations,
and Mr. Bergh's correspondence contains many applications from foreign
lands for information as to his methods and the laws under which he
works.
Ten thousand cases of cruelty to animals have been prosecuted by this
society, and about thirty thousand animals in New York and Brooklyn have
been suspended from work because of being disabled. Dog-fighting men,
rat-baiters and cock-fighters, as a matter of course, regard Mr. Bergh
as an enemy. But pigeon-shooting, a form of sport affected by the
wealthy and influential, he has yet been unable to stop. An area was
built in the city of New York for the avowed purpose of bull-fighting;
but Mr. Bergh put an end to the enterprise, with great loss to its
promoters. The income of the society is over twenty-five thousand
dollars per year, and has been assisted powerfully by bequests, that of
Bonard being $150,000. "Our Animal Friends" is the official gazette of
the society.
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Note: This was downloaded directly from a internet search.
The author is unknown.