ASPCA history

In 1873, the ASPCA played a role in enacting a federal law requiring that all shipped animals be allowed food, water and exercise during extensive transit.

1886: Henry Bergh charters the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

The ASPCA established shelters, the first in 1894, where animals could be reclaimed or more humanely euthanized.

The ASPCA put the first motorized horse ambulance into service in 1902; two years before any human hospital had such a vehicle.

While on assignment in Russia as an American diplomat, a New Yorker named Henry Bergh stopped a carriage driver from beating his fallen horse. It began with the opening of our first veterinary facility, a horse dispensary on Manhattan’s 24th Street, in 1912.

1916: The ASPCA begins a formal humane education program for school children.

In 1918, ASPCA veterinarians developed the use of anesthesia and as a result were able to work on a horse with a broken kneecap.

1925: ASPCA begins a series of weekly informative radio broadcasts.

In 1916, the Society initiated humane education programs in schools, and in 1925 used the new medium of radio to broadcast its message of humane animal treatment in a series of weekly addresses. Thus my whole life is spent." In 1928 the ASPCA aggressively expanded its programs of public education programs in schools and neighborhoods.

1944: The organization institutes obedience training classes for dogs and their owners.

1952: In New York, the ASPCA inaugurates inspections of laboratory animals used in research.

In 1961, ASPCA veterinarians performed their first open-heart surgery on a dog.

The ASPCA countered with more aggressive educational and spay and neuter campaigns beginning in 1963.

The Animal Welfare Act of 1966 was passed with support from the ASPCA; it is the only federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in research and exhibition.

1973: The adoption department begins mandatory spay and neuter of all animals in the care of the ASPCA.

Starting in 1977, the ASPCA entered into a contract with New York City Department of Health to receive municipal funding to operate the shelter system.

In 1985 the ASPCA also developed a department of Government Affairs and Public Policy to work toward protecting animals at the state and federal level through new laws and ballot initiatives.

1996 was also the year in which the Society launched its Care-a-Van, its first mobile spay and neuter clinic in New York.

2000: The ASPCA supplies data to support the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act; two of the four provisions of the proposal are signed into law.

In 2004 the ASPCA was one of the motivating forces behind the October National Feral Cat Summit, the first gathering of its kind devoted to study of managing feral cats.

In 2013, the ASPCA made a $25 million commitment to assist at-risk animals and pet owners in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, including a fully subsidized spay/neuter facility in South Los Angeles operated by the ASPCA and a campaign to encourage the fostering of local vulnerable kittens.

In 2014, the ASPCA also opened the ASPCA Kitten Nursery in NYC to care for neonate and very young homeless kittens until they are appropriate for adoption.

In 2015, the ASPCA acquired the Asheville, NC-based Humane Alliance, now called the ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance.

In 2018, the ASPCA established the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center.

In 2019, the ASPCA opened the ASPCA Community Veterinary Center in Liberty City, Miami, FL to provide subsidized veterinary services for an undeserved community.

In 2020, the ASPCA opened the ASPCA Community Veterinary Center in the Bronx, New York.

In 2021, the ASPCA opened the ASPCA Community Veterinary Center supported by the Alex and Elisabeth Lewyt Charitable Trust, in NYC.