Organized Animal Protection in the United
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CHAPTER XI "GOODBYE OLD MAN": THE PASSINGOF THEHORSE The shift away fromhuman reliance on equine labor was rife with significancefor organized animal protection,a movement whose own identity had so beenassociated with concernfor the horse. At the dawn of the twentiethcentury, humane advocates had to face the horse's rapid transformation into a symbol of an outmoded past. Even as horsesbegan to disappearfrom the streets, animal protectionistsremained vigilant in searching out and redressing instances of neglectand abuse. As certainuses of horses waned, the humane movement expandedits effortsto relieve equine suffering on other fronts. However, the horse also becamean object of sentimental interest, ritualized enactments, and quaint public debates. As the horse gave way to the bicycle, the automobile, and other forms of transportation, the humane movement romanticized the animal's faithfuland loyal service to humans, civilization, and the state. Dobbin Displaced During the first quartercentury of organized animal protection, the horse was the central focusof the humane movement's practical work. No matter how successful, though, humane initiatives could only palliate the inevitable sufferingof horses in a range of contexts, becausethe horse was a pivotal factorin the economy. Animal advocates Jivedand campaigned in a world in which horses were going to be used,and neither they nor other Americans could foreseea time when this would not be so. 436 437 Becausethe abuseof horses was ubiquitous and highly visible, the opportunities for bothprosecution and prevention of cruelty were numerous. Wherever the community, a high percentage of anti-crueltycases involvedthe mistreatment of horses. During the years 1868-1880, 70 percent of the 8,256 prosecutions mounted by the American Society forthe Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) related to horses. Between 1868 and 1878, 54 percent of the 18,389 complaints investigated by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) involved horse-related categories of abuse. 1 Of course, humane work on behalfof horses went far beyond the criminalization of harsh treatmentto include a range of benevolent initiatives in equine welfare. In addition to seeking the arrest and prosecution of those who mistreated horses, animal protectionists provided veterinary counsel and care, waged campaigns against bits and restraints, founded rest havens foraged work animals, oversaw the distribution of food, blankets, bonnets, harnesses, and other equipment, and maintained fountains and watering stations. If there was any single arena in which animal protectionists would have wished to see horses relieved from their burden of service, it was that of urban mass transit. Human invention, once it turnedto the task, quickly demonstrated the potentialfor dramatic reductionin the sum total of equinemisery. Compassion was an importantmotivation forthe prime movers and sponsors of new systems of transportation. The earliest 1 ASPCA, Ann. R. 1881; andMSPCA, Ann. R. 1878. 8. I concmctedthis analysisof humane societystatistics with Dr. Philip M Teigen. whoused them in "Counting Urban Horses."presented to the CoUoquiumon DomesticAnimals in AmericanHistory and Culture, National Libraryof Medicine, Bethesda,W, Nov. 9, 2001. 438 promoters of railroads and steamshipssometimes emphasized the relief of horses from sufferingas partof their case. Later in the nineteenthcentury, Andrew S. Hallidie (1836- 1900), inventor of the cable car, revealed that the sight of horses struggling to draw their cars up the steep hills of San Francisco during the 1860s and 1870s inspired him to seek an alternative.2 The periodic epizootics of the nineteenth century were significant in setting scientificingenuity to work. The 1872 epizootic-the worst ever-spurred interest and experiments centering on mechanical traction. An equine population so vulnerable and easily devastated by disease could not be relied upon to meetthe demands of an expanding industrial economy. Health and sanitary concerns providedcompelling incentives, too. Congested streets, crowded streetcars,shoddy paving, stench, din, manure pits, and the occasional human death from animal-bornedisease marked the increasing unsuitability of the horse to the urban environment. It also led many citizens to contemplate a world without reliance upon horse-drawn transportation.3 The key shifts began in the 1890s as horsecars gave way to electrically powered vehicles. When electric traction with undergroundwiring appeared, it spelled the end of 2 "On Crueltyto Animals," Churchman'sMagazine 2 (Nov. 1822), 334; "Railroadsand LocomotiveSteam Engines," American Mechanics' Magazine 1 (4 Jw,e1825), 282-88; "Fromthe American Watchman,"Agricultural Museum 2 (Jan. 1811 ). 196-98; and"Society News," Journalof 2.oq,hily (hereafterJOZ) l (Jan. 1892), 4. 3 "New Motor forPassenger Railway Cars," Public Ledger.19 Dec.1872. PSPCA-PA, SBK 1866-1877;"Steam Street-Car," Our Dumb Animals(hereafter ODAI 5 (Jan. 1873), 265; Women's Branch,PSPCA, Minutesof Apr. 16, 1874, Women's PennsylvaniaSociety for the Preventionof Cruelty to AnimaJsPapers, Women's Humane Society, Bensalem, PA [WHS Papers!;"Motive Power for Tramways," GermantownTelegraph. 22 May1874, PSPCA-PA, SBK 1866-1877;Women's Branch, PSPCA, Ann. R. 1874. 10; "Substitutesfor Horses,"New YorkWortd, 2 Mar. 1879, AmericanSociety for the Preventionof Crueltyto Animals Archive.New York,NY (ASPCA-NY], SBK 8: 39; and" A New Motor for Street Railways,"ODA 14 (Aug. 1881), 20. 439 the horsecar era. "The wretched suffering of the streetcar horseis about ended," John G. Shortall told the 1899 American Humane Association (AHA) conference. Along with steam power, the traction system, and electricity, the bicycle too wrought its impact. Professionals and workmen alike took to the wheel to move themselves about. Within a few years of Henry Bergh's death in 1888, the horsecars he had labored to regulate had all but disappeared, and the occasional horsecar became an anachronistic sight.4 Between 1889 and 1894, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) recorded a 20 percent decline in workload due to the advent of traction and the electric trolley, and PSPCA officialslooked forward to the opportunityto direct their attention to other, previously neglected, horse-related cruelties. 5 Like other Americans, animal protectionists sometimes anticipated the 6 development of a "horseless carriage." But few in the 1890s could have imagined the dramatic impact of the internal combustion engine on the fortunes of the horse. As the automobile and then the motor truckwent into mass production, the potential for replacement became obvious. By 1910, the demise of equine labor as a factor in the � "Supplanting of the Horse," Phila Star, 9 Nov. 1894, PSPCA-PA. SBK 1880-1902;"The Pas.singof the Horse,The Coming of the Bicycleand the Tricycle,"Our Animal Friends [hereafterQM] 22 (Mar. 1895), 146-47;AHA, Ann. R. 1899. 8. By 1907,critics were attacking the remaining horsecar linein NewYork as an affrontto thepopulation of the Lower EastSide, where electrificationwas delayed. Oncea fixtureof the streets,the horsecarhad become an insult SeeLouis H. Fink, "TheHorse Car's Last Standin New York," Charities 18: 124-2S. s "Friendsof Animals,"Phila Bulletin. IS Jan. 189S, "Friendsof Dumb Beasts,"Phila Bulletin, Undatedarticle (189S), and"Abolishment of Horse Cars Givesan Opponunity to ExtendLabor," Unsourced, undatedarticle (1898), PSPCA-PA. SBK 1880-1902. 6"The Carriage of the Future," ODA 24 (Feb.1892), lOS. 440 American economy had accelerated beyond what even the most optimistic and forward thinking humane advocates could have hoped. Although regional variations could be significant, from 1900to 19 l O the horse and mule population of urban cities fell from 426 per square mile to 300, a thirty percent decrease. From 19 l O to 1920, it fell furtherto l 00 per square mile, a sixty-sevenpercent decrease. In the Northeast, where some of the most active humane societies operated, equine population density fell by fifty-ninepercent in the latter decade, to 154 per square mile.7 Helping the Horse One of the arenas into which animal protectionistsexpanded their activity at the tum of the century was the regulation and suppression of the traffic in broken-down and unfit animals. Humane societies did their best to educatehorse buyers about the "skinners"' market. There, animals who had seen better days were bought, sold, and bartered into still more woeful circumstances, and opportunisticcon men took advantage of less knowledgeable citizens. 8 Typically, this commerce exploited recent immigrants, toopoor or uneducated to purchase better animals for use in drawing cartsand wagons, and other work. "Horse-sharpers" took advantage of such buyers at the auction stables, using arsenic, laudanum, and other drugsto mask the animals' deficiencies until after they had been sold. Wily dealers also sold diseased and infected animals to unsuspecting 7 Teigen, "Counting UrbanHorses." 8 The New York horsemarket relained continuing fascination for the print mediathroughout the post.CivilWar era. See"Worn Out Horses," New York Times [hereafterN. Y. Timesl.26 Dec. 1869, 3; "WhereTo Buy a CheapHorse," New York Sun, 17 Apr. 1871, 2; "Broken-DownHorses by Auction," New YorkSun, 18 Mar. 1877, 3; and"The Skinners'Market," New York World. 13 Aug. 1883. 6. 441 buyers. These transactionsjoined together dishonesty and cruelty, and proved difficultto curb, although animal