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A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement
From an award-winning historian, the outlandish story of the man who gave rights to animals.
In Gilded Age America, people and animals lived cheek-by-jowl in environments that were dirty and dangerous to man and beast alike. The industrial city brought suffering, but it also inspired a compassion for animals that fueled a controversial anti-cruelty movement. From the center of these debates, Henry Bergh launched a shocking campaign to grant rights to animals.
A Traitor to His Species is revelatory social history, awash with colorful characters. Cheered on by thousands of men and women who joined his cause, Bergh fought with robber barons, Five Points gangs, and legendary impresario P.T. Barnum, as they pushed for new laws to protect trolley horses, livestock, stray dogs, and other animals.
Raucous and entertaining, A Traitor to His Species tells the story of a remarkable man who gave voice to the voiceless and shaped our modern relationship with animals.
In Gilded Age America, people and animals lived cheek-by-jowl in environments that were dirty and dangerous to man and beast alike. The industrial city brought suffering, but it also inspired a compassion for animals that fueled a controversial anti-cruelty movement. From the center of these debates, Henry Bergh launched a shocking campaign to grant rights to animals.
A Traitor to His Species is revelatory social history, awash with colorful characters. Cheered on by thousands of men and women who joined his cause, Bergh fought with robber barons, Five Points gangs, and legendary impresario P.T. Barnum, as they pushed for new laws to protect trolley horses, livestock, stray dogs, and other animals.
Raucous and entertaining, A Traitor to His Species tells the story of a remarkable man who gave voice to the voiceless and shaped our modern relationship with animals.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
September 22, 2020
Gilded Age Americans lived cheek-by-jowl with free-range animals. Cities and towns teemed with milk cows in dark tenement alleys, pigs rooting through garbage in the streets, geese and chickens harried by the packs of stray dogs that roamed the 19th-century city. For all of American history, animals had been a ubiquitous and seemingly inevitable part of urban life, essential to sustaining a dense human population. As that population became ever-denser, though, city dwellers were forced to consider new ways to share space with their fellow creatures-and began to fit urban animals into one of two categories: the pets they loved or the pests they exterminated. Into the fracas of the urban landscape stepped Henry Bergh, who launched a then-shocking campaign to bring rights to animals. Bergh's movement was considered wildly radical for suggesting that animals might feel pain, that they might have rights. He and his cadre of activists put abusers on trial, sometimes literally calling the animal victims as witnesses in court. But despite all the showmanship, at its core, the movement was guided by a fierce sense of its devotees' morality.
A Traitor to His Species is the fascinating biography of Henry Burgh, an affluent New Yorker who seemingly had something of an epiphany aged 52 years old and believed he was put here on earth with the purpose of ending animal abuse. Founding the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866, he was the subject of ridicule with people labelling him as insane for his crazy outlook and him giving a voice to the voiceless. I feel a Bertrand Russell quote is apt here: ”Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” and look where we are now; almost the entire population are advocates of rights for animals so we have a lot to thank the eccentric Henry Burgh for. This is a thoroughly entertaining and immersive read and is accessible to all. It's evident that Freeberg has researched the man and his legacy thoroughly as there is extensive detail which I appreciated. For animal lovers, activists and history buffs, this is an important and significant book and an absolute must-read. So much more than just a biography, this is a compassionate, eminently readable and often heart-wrenching account of the plight of animals in nineteenth-century America. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Basic Books for an ARC.
A Traitor to His Species is the fascinating biography of Henry Burgh, an affluent New Yorker who seemingly had something of an epiphany aged 52 years old and believed he was put here on earth with the purpose of ending animal abuse. Founding the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866, he was the subject of ridicule with people labelling him as insane for his crazy outlook and him giving a voice to the voiceless. I feel a Bertrand Russell quote is apt here: ”Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” and look where we are now; almost the entire population are advocates of rights for animals so we have a lot to thank the eccentric Henry Burgh for. This is a thoroughly entertaining and immersive read and is accessible to all. It's evident that Freeberg has researched the man and his legacy thoroughly as there is extensive detail which I appreciated. For animal lovers, activists and history buffs, this is an important and significant book and an absolute must-read. So much more than just a biography, this is a compassionate, eminently readable and often heart-wrenching account of the plight of animals in nineteenth-century America. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Basic Books for an ARC.
June 19, 2020
Before reading this book I had never heard of Henry Bergh and I'm so happy I read this book because it sheds a lot of light on how the state of the animal rights movement today came to be. Some of the things that used to be a big battle seem obvious to us today (issues like dogfighting), but it wasn't always like that.
What I liked:
This book broke its chapters more or less up by specific battles fought by Bergh. The moving of livestock, dogfights, the way public transportation horses were treated, pigeon shooting, etc. To me, even when things weren't 100% in chronological order, this made the book very easy to follow.
I also liked that not every single thing in the book was Bergh getting his way or being amazing. I've read way too many bios of people where you can tell the author clearly admires their subject too much and ends up publishing a glowing review of their life that leaves you feeling like you can't really trust it. This book shows some of the more extreme opinions Bergh had, and also some times he made decisions he came to regret.
What I didn't like:
So, this book was about Bergh in his role founding the ASPCA and for this reason there was not a lot about his personal life included, but I would have really liked to have just a bit more. Similarly, Bergh's work obviously had him working closely either with or against people quite often in his goal to promote animal welfare and yet pretty much everyone else in the book is not mentioned as having a significant relationship to Bergh much at all with the exception of P. T. Barnum who comes up multiple times. I would have liked to get a closer look at some of the people who were present in Bergh's life as opposed to just the man himself. Influences play a huge role in the overall picture of a person and in the decisions they make.
Sometimes I felt the descriptions of the things the animals had to endure were more graphic than they strictly had to be, but then again if they were not then would we really understand exactly what it was that Bergh was up against? Hard to say.
Overall, definitely one to read if you seek to understand the history of the animal rights movement in North America, but like most other things, it does not come without its own flaws.
What I liked:
This book broke its chapters more or less up by specific battles fought by Bergh. The moving of livestock, dogfights, the way public transportation horses were treated, pigeon shooting, etc. To me, even when things weren't 100% in chronological order, this made the book very easy to follow.
I also liked that not every single thing in the book was Bergh getting his way or being amazing. I've read way too many bios of people where you can tell the author clearly admires their subject too much and ends up publishing a glowing review of their life that leaves you feeling like you can't really trust it. This book shows some of the more extreme opinions Bergh had, and also some times he made decisions he came to regret.
What I didn't like:
So, this book was about Bergh in his role founding the ASPCA and for this reason there was not a lot about his personal life included, but I would have really liked to have just a bit more. Similarly, Bergh's work obviously had him working closely either with or against people quite often in his goal to promote animal welfare and yet pretty much everyone else in the book is not mentioned as having a significant relationship to Bergh much at all with the exception of P. T. Barnum who comes up multiple times. I would have liked to get a closer look at some of the people who were present in Bergh's life as opposed to just the man himself. Influences play a huge role in the overall picture of a person and in the decisions they make.
Sometimes I felt the descriptions of the things the animals had to endure were more graphic than they strictly had to be, but then again if they were not then would we really understand exactly what it was that Bergh was up against? Hard to say.
Overall, definitely one to read if you seek to understand the history of the animal rights movement in North America, but like most other things, it does not come without its own flaws.
October 6, 2020
***I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***
It's very "in" right now to write biographies by just dropping the reader in at a point and then filling in the details as you go from there. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this style but have read some books that do it well (The Price of Peace comes to mind). I don't think this book did it particularly well, unfortunately. I walk away without a connection to Henry Bergh and that connection is, for me, what makes biographies great.
The birth of the animals rights movement, according to this book, was with the passing of legislation to set up the New York SPCA (which is the predecessor for our modern ASPCA - American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Bergh was the founder and a passionate promotor of animal rights. He often made himself a bit of a fool in polite company for his efforts, but even this was part of his plan for getting animal rights into the public consciousness. It seems he succeeded in that regards.
I wish this book had told us more about him as a person. Some small hints to his larger character are mentioned, but they're more of a tease than anything else. I also wish the book had delved more into the other players in the animal rights movement during that time.
All that said, it was fascinating to read about the differences in animal rights viewpoints then vs now. So much of our focus now is on sustainability and species protection...whereas back then that was barely a blip on their radar. While this is one of those issues that will always need activism, it's nice to see how far we've come.
It's very "in" right now to write biographies by just dropping the reader in at a point and then filling in the details as you go from there. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this style but have read some books that do it well (The Price of Peace comes to mind). I don't think this book did it particularly well, unfortunately. I walk away without a connection to Henry Bergh and that connection is, for me, what makes biographies great.
The birth of the animals rights movement, according to this book, was with the passing of legislation to set up the New York SPCA (which is the predecessor for our modern ASPCA - American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Bergh was the founder and a passionate promotor of animal rights. He often made himself a bit of a fool in polite company for his efforts, but even this was part of his plan for getting animal rights into the public consciousness. It seems he succeeded in that regards.
I wish this book had told us more about him as a person. Some small hints to his larger character are mentioned, but they're more of a tease than anything else. I also wish the book had delved more into the other players in the animal rights movement during that time.
All that said, it was fascinating to read about the differences in animal rights viewpoints then vs now. So much of our focus now is on sustainability and species protection...whereas back then that was barely a blip on their radar. While this is one of those issues that will always need activism, it's nice to see how far we've come.
December 28, 2021
Ernest Freeberg describes in this book the adventurous and incredible story of Henry Bergh, the founder of American animal welfare. This wealthy gentleman from New York fought uncompromisingly against all those who mistreated animals in the second half of the 19th century. He made no distinction between gangsters, criminal gangs, labor unions, big industrialists, politicians, universities or destitute workers.
A great and entertaining book, about a principled courageous man. The book also contains some historical gems. In particular, the story, unknown to most people, of the first energy crisis that hit all of North America in late 1872 is very impressive. I also love the pictorial description of the times.
A great and entertaining book, about a principled courageous man. The book also contains some historical gems. In particular, the story, unknown to most people, of the first energy crisis that hit all of North America in late 1872 is very impressive. I also love the pictorial description of the times.
November 8, 2021
Many of our modern practices and beliefs on animal rights, child welfare and wild life conservation we owe to the relentless dedication and and pioneering work of Henry Berg. The birth of the animal rights movement and the creation of the ASPCA was formed during the Gilded Age, swept along with the tide of other progressive and reformist movements of the popular conscience when urban sprawl, population growth and immigration were percolating in the US.
It is difficult to imagine now, but during the later half of the 1800’s, New York City and many other growing eastern metropolitan cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, were teeming with animals in the streets, “cheek and jowl” with people. Horses pulled passenger trolley cars, carts, and cargo. Stray cats and dogs roamed the streets and back alleys freely. Pigs rummaged through the city streets and gutters as the defacto form of urban refuse removal. Residents who immigrated from rural communities brought their geese, cows, or chickens to be housed in their backyards. Rendering plants which boiled the remains of animals to be converted into machine oil, gloves, and soap from the hides, bones and fat of numerous animals lined the west side of New York City. The sheer number of animals, their cries, and their excrements in city streets with out regulation or ordinances obviously degraded the quality of life and posed risks to public health and sanitation.
The explosive growth of cities during the Gilded Age put enormous stress on animals as well as its growing human population. Witnessing undue cruelty and harm undertaken by animals from their human counterparts, caused outrage to Henry Berg who brought public awareness to the very foreign and controversial idea of anti-cruelty to animals, humane death, and protection to those creatures who are dependents on humans for their well being. Between his Boston colleague George Angell and his Philadelphian counterpart Caroline Earl White, they embarked on a mission of reform and education for the public and the young generation on value of ‘kindness’ to all of God’s creatures.
Henry Berg being ahead of his time with the novel notion of animal welfare, faced very public criticism and ridicule. With the power of arrest and a cadres of agents, he tried to prevent cruelty to the galled horses who pulled overloaded trollies in the heat and snow while being callout for interfering with Americans’ private property. He advocating for proper food, water and shelter be provided to cattle, sheep and pigs that rode hundreds of miles in railcars across the country to be slaughtered. He and his agents inspected slaughter houses, exposing inhuman killing techniques and unsanitary conditions and tried to reform the US factory farming system. He interfered in gentlemen’s gun clubs which held pigeon shooting tournaments and disbanded dog fighting gambling dens. Berg had many public debates with PT Barnum over the suspicion of the showman’s treatment and endangerment of wild exotic animals and raised doubts to customers about the cost of animal suffering.
Henry Berg believed that animal cruelty was a form of barbarism and people who are cruel to animals would soon be cruel to each other. In his view, a society that inflicts violence upon dependent and voiceless creatures or watches their inhumane slaughter, psychologically damages them and degrades their moral compass. While defending animals he saw the darker side of human nature; sadism, ignorance, indifference and the poverty and suffering that motivated cruel acts. Luckily his private fortune and notable standing in high society allowed him to have the influence and connections to reach the NY legislature to enact laws on behalf of animals. His financial independence allowed him the freedom and time to devoted his energy to the cause without compromising his moral stance. Berg continually provoked uncomfortable public debates about the proper balance between human economic interests and animal rights.
This book is filled with so many interesting moments in the animal welfare struggle including the horse pandemic which cause the first energy crisis, the dog licensing act, the invention of the clay pigeon, the first shipment of meat on ice, and the creation of the modern zoo, to name a few.
All the social norms and values we currently have toward animals, livestock and our pets, was once a hard public and legal battle fought during the reform movement by Berg and his colleagues. For some cases, battles initiated by the Gilded age reformers are still ongoing; medical and labs testing on animals, overcrowded livestock feed lots, and wild life conservation. The legacy of Henry Berg endures through the institution of the ASPCA, his influence in the founding the to child welfare and domestic violence protection laws, biophilia, the freedom to obsess over our pets, and the overarching cultivation of kindness to all living creatures.
It is difficult to imagine now, but during the later half of the 1800’s, New York City and many other growing eastern metropolitan cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, were teeming with animals in the streets, “cheek and jowl” with people. Horses pulled passenger trolley cars, carts, and cargo. Stray cats and dogs roamed the streets and back alleys freely. Pigs rummaged through the city streets and gutters as the defacto form of urban refuse removal. Residents who immigrated from rural communities brought their geese, cows, or chickens to be housed in their backyards. Rendering plants which boiled the remains of animals to be converted into machine oil, gloves, and soap from the hides, bones and fat of numerous animals lined the west side of New York City. The sheer number of animals, their cries, and their excrements in city streets with out regulation or ordinances obviously degraded the quality of life and posed risks to public health and sanitation.
The explosive growth of cities during the Gilded Age put enormous stress on animals as well as its growing human population. Witnessing undue cruelty and harm undertaken by animals from their human counterparts, caused outrage to Henry Berg who brought public awareness to the very foreign and controversial idea of anti-cruelty to animals, humane death, and protection to those creatures who are dependents on humans for their well being. Between his Boston colleague George Angell and his Philadelphian counterpart Caroline Earl White, they embarked on a mission of reform and education for the public and the young generation on value of ‘kindness’ to all of God’s creatures.
Henry Berg being ahead of his time with the novel notion of animal welfare, faced very public criticism and ridicule. With the power of arrest and a cadres of agents, he tried to prevent cruelty to the galled horses who pulled overloaded trollies in the heat and snow while being callout for interfering with Americans’ private property. He advocating for proper food, water and shelter be provided to cattle, sheep and pigs that rode hundreds of miles in railcars across the country to be slaughtered. He and his agents inspected slaughter houses, exposing inhuman killing techniques and unsanitary conditions and tried to reform the US factory farming system. He interfered in gentlemen’s gun clubs which held pigeon shooting tournaments and disbanded dog fighting gambling dens. Berg had many public debates with PT Barnum over the suspicion of the showman’s treatment and endangerment of wild exotic animals and raised doubts to customers about the cost of animal suffering.
Henry Berg believed that animal cruelty was a form of barbarism and people who are cruel to animals would soon be cruel to each other. In his view, a society that inflicts violence upon dependent and voiceless creatures or watches their inhumane slaughter, psychologically damages them and degrades their moral compass. While defending animals he saw the darker side of human nature; sadism, ignorance, indifference and the poverty and suffering that motivated cruel acts. Luckily his private fortune and notable standing in high society allowed him to have the influence and connections to reach the NY legislature to enact laws on behalf of animals. His financial independence allowed him the freedom and time to devoted his energy to the cause without compromising his moral stance. Berg continually provoked uncomfortable public debates about the proper balance between human economic interests and animal rights.
This book is filled with so many interesting moments in the animal welfare struggle including the horse pandemic which cause the first energy crisis, the dog licensing act, the invention of the clay pigeon, the first shipment of meat on ice, and the creation of the modern zoo, to name a few.
All the social norms and values we currently have toward animals, livestock and our pets, was once a hard public and legal battle fought during the reform movement by Berg and his colleagues. For some cases, battles initiated by the Gilded age reformers are still ongoing; medical and labs testing on animals, overcrowded livestock feed lots, and wild life conservation. The legacy of Henry Berg endures through the institution of the ASPCA, his influence in the founding the to child welfare and domestic violence protection laws, biophilia, the freedom to obsess over our pets, and the overarching cultivation of kindness to all living creatures.
July 4, 2022
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
If you haven't read anything about Henry Bergh, or this particular time in history, this would be a good source of info. If you know the story of the ASPCA and more about New York City history, you may find a lot of overlap in knowledge. If you want to be saddened that not much has fundamentally changed for animals (and in some ways, has gotten worse) in 150 years, crack this book open.
At the same time, to not commit the common error of denying any progress, a lot of battles Bergh started and fought have had benefits, and his taking animal welfare into the legal system was a huge jump forward.
Bergh had wealth and privilege, but perhaps because of his privilege he was able to contrast wrongs more than someone who didn't. He was able to withstand being ridiculed and hated by a good portion of citizens, press, and elites alike. And he was not simply some tweeting bystander or board member: he was out in the streets and slaughterhouses and rat pits. His ideology wasn't always clear or "pure" but damn it, he did a lot more than I or a lot of people do. He got a lot done- and organized many people to help him- but left even more unfinished.
I thought of him on May 21, 2017 when the legacy P.T. Barnum left folded up forever and the Ringling Bros- Barnum & Bailey circus gave its last performance with animals. I imagined at least a half-smile of relief on Bergh's hangdog face, if only for a moment.
If you haven't read anything about Henry Bergh, or this particular time in history, this would be a good source of info. If you know the story of the ASPCA and more about New York City history, you may find a lot of overlap in knowledge. If you want to be saddened that not much has fundamentally changed for animals (and in some ways, has gotten worse) in 150 years, crack this book open.
At the same time, to not commit the common error of denying any progress, a lot of battles Bergh started and fought have had benefits, and his taking animal welfare into the legal system was a huge jump forward.
Bergh had wealth and privilege, but perhaps because of his privilege he was able to contrast wrongs more than someone who didn't. He was able to withstand being ridiculed and hated by a good portion of citizens, press, and elites alike. And he was not simply some tweeting bystander or board member: he was out in the streets and slaughterhouses and rat pits. His ideology wasn't always clear or "pure" but damn it, he did a lot more than I or a lot of people do. He got a lot done- and organized many people to help him- but left even more unfinished.
I thought of him on May 21, 2017 when the legacy P.T. Barnum left folded up forever and the Ringling Bros- Barnum & Bailey circus gave its last performance with animals. I imagined at least a half-smile of relief on Bergh's hangdog face, if only for a moment.
July 9, 2021
A fascinating dive. More about the birth of the animal rights movement and Henry Bergh’s role in that than about the man himself. There was like… 4 sentences about his family/personal life, which was fine, just surprising. This traced many animal rights and ethical questions we have today back to the Gilded Age. I also learned some cool stuff — like the ASPCA actually came before societies for the prevention of cruelty to children. I also loved learning about the passion Bergh had for turtles, very cool. As someone who is passionate about animal rights, I am always dumbly shocked when I have to read about animal torture when diving into the subject, which, duh, of course. So heads up for those who get dumbly shocked like me, there’s some rough things to read.
September 21, 2024
I paused reading this book twice due to other demands. That is why it took me nearly a month to work through.
The canonical example of a life well lived. The canonical example of a book that puts its historical character in the context of his time.
Henry Bergh did so much for animals. He founded the ASPCA, which started with one chapter in New York City and, by his death, had expanded to hundreds nationally, including the youth-centered Bands of Mercy.
Bergh was very wealthy, a member of the upper crust. But he had no interest in the naval business that produced his fortune. He found his cause with animals.
The author does a good job of showing the conflicts inherent to Bergh’s reforms. He had gotten laws passed in Albany that allowed him and his employees to roam the city, looking for examples of abuse, and confronting the abusers. For example, if he saw a horse-drawn trolley that was overloaded, he had the right to stop that trolley. Queues of trolleys would build up as he insisted that the trolley be lightened, and the trolley driver insisted that the trolley needed to be moving forward, never mind that the trolley was overloaded, the streets were slippery and the horses were exhausted. You can see the conflict: stopping the trolley meant that some 15 year old garment worker, dead on her feet after a 12 hour shift, was delayed getting home to her well-deserved rest.
Of course, the problem was not the garment worker or Henry Bergh, or the horses. It was the overfed factory owner, who paid the girl a quarter of what she deserved for a shift that was much longer than humane. And the hard-hearted owner of the trolley line, who cared about the profits he was making, and felt nothing for the horses whose labor produced the profit.
The section on dog control was particularly interesting. In the 1870s and 1880s, the concept of owning a dog was not as developed as it is today. Some dogs were pampered indoor pets but others roamed about, unlicensed and uncared for. And of course, there was no cheap or easy spay or neuter operation, so dogs reproduced at will, formed packs, and menaced both children and adults. Fancy walking home from work with perhaps, some meat wrapped in paper, then being set upon by a pack of 10 or 12 dogs. You would certainly lose the meat, you could be bitten, and of course you risked getting rabies from the bite. In those pre-antibiotic days, rabies was likely to lead to a painful death.
So there was a need for dog control. At first, the catcher was appointed for the summer months only, during the height of rabies season. He roamed the city catching dogs and paying boys (usually dirt-poor immigrants) to bring him dogs. The boys went out and grabbed any dog they could find, since they were paid by the dog. Didn’t matter if the dog was somebody’s pet. The owner had about 24 hours to notice the dog was gone, journey to the shelter, and rescue the traumatized dog. How many beloved pets were drowned in the East River? No wonder cartoons showed the dog catcher as evil!
This situation led to dog licenses. On the first day licenses were available, the line stretched for blocks and demand far exceeded supply.
The Philadelphia chapter of the ASPCA, led by a Quaker woman named Caroline Earle White, pioneered many humane innovations: year round dog control, a shelter where dogs could be re-homed, and humane (for the time) euthanasia.
My only criticism of this book is that it tells you almost nothing about Henry Bergh’s personal life. It is only in the last few pages that one learns that he was married. And that fact slips out only because the author notes that Bergh’s wife was away in a sanitarium the day her husband died. There seems to be quite a bit of untold story there.
The canonical example of a life well lived. The canonical example of a book that puts its historical character in the context of his time.
Henry Bergh did so much for animals. He founded the ASPCA, which started with one chapter in New York City and, by his death, had expanded to hundreds nationally, including the youth-centered Bands of Mercy.
Bergh was very wealthy, a member of the upper crust. But he had no interest in the naval business that produced his fortune. He found his cause with animals.
The author does a good job of showing the conflicts inherent to Bergh’s reforms. He had gotten laws passed in Albany that allowed him and his employees to roam the city, looking for examples of abuse, and confronting the abusers. For example, if he saw a horse-drawn trolley that was overloaded, he had the right to stop that trolley. Queues of trolleys would build up as he insisted that the trolley be lightened, and the trolley driver insisted that the trolley needed to be moving forward, never mind that the trolley was overloaded, the streets were slippery and the horses were exhausted. You can see the conflict: stopping the trolley meant that some 15 year old garment worker, dead on her feet after a 12 hour shift, was delayed getting home to her well-deserved rest.
Of course, the problem was not the garment worker or Henry Bergh, or the horses. It was the overfed factory owner, who paid the girl a quarter of what she deserved for a shift that was much longer than humane. And the hard-hearted owner of the trolley line, who cared about the profits he was making, and felt nothing for the horses whose labor produced the profit.
The section on dog control was particularly interesting. In the 1870s and 1880s, the concept of owning a dog was not as developed as it is today. Some dogs were pampered indoor pets but others roamed about, unlicensed and uncared for. And of course, there was no cheap or easy spay or neuter operation, so dogs reproduced at will, formed packs, and menaced both children and adults. Fancy walking home from work with perhaps, some meat wrapped in paper, then being set upon by a pack of 10 or 12 dogs. You would certainly lose the meat, you could be bitten, and of course you risked getting rabies from the bite. In those pre-antibiotic days, rabies was likely to lead to a painful death.
So there was a need for dog control. At first, the catcher was appointed for the summer months only, during the height of rabies season. He roamed the city catching dogs and paying boys (usually dirt-poor immigrants) to bring him dogs. The boys went out and grabbed any dog they could find, since they were paid by the dog. Didn’t matter if the dog was somebody’s pet. The owner had about 24 hours to notice the dog was gone, journey to the shelter, and rescue the traumatized dog. How many beloved pets were drowned in the East River? No wonder cartoons showed the dog catcher as evil!
This situation led to dog licenses. On the first day licenses were available, the line stretched for blocks and demand far exceeded supply.
The Philadelphia chapter of the ASPCA, led by a Quaker woman named Caroline Earle White, pioneered many humane innovations: year round dog control, a shelter where dogs could be re-homed, and humane (for the time) euthanasia.
My only criticism of this book is that it tells you almost nothing about Henry Bergh’s personal life. It is only in the last few pages that one learns that he was married. And that fact slips out only because the author notes that Bergh’s wife was away in a sanitarium the day her husband died. There seems to be quite a bit of untold story there.
November 7, 2020
Winston Churchill once stated, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
In that spirit, I was immediately attracted by the title of the book A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement by Ernest Freeberg, a professor of History at University of Tennessee, in the U.S. The book not only teaches much about the lives of people and other animals in the U.S. in the first 25 years after the end of the Civil War (1861-1865), it also gives us much to ponder about animal activism today in comparison with similar movements of about 150 years earlier.
While I highly recommend the book, two possible mistakes in the title should be corrected from the outset. First, Bergh and his colleagues were more involved in animal welfare than in animal rights. Their view was that animals should be free from unnecessary pain, not free from human exploitation. For example, the organization Bergh helped to found in 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), was probably most famous for their actions on behalf of the horses who served at the time as a key means of transportation of transport people and goods. The ASPCA did not oppose the use of horses for this purpose; their campaigns were about better conditions for the horses, such as regular rests, reduced loads, and no beatings. Bergh also led campaign against the long-distance transport to slaughterhouses of cows, pigs, and even turtles. For example, cows would be transported 1000s of kilometers from the central U.S. for slaughter in the eastern U.S., which was the more densely populated part of the country.
A second possible mistake in the title of A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement is that the animal welfare movement which Bergh championed was not born in the U.S. It had begun in 1824 or earlier in the U.K. Furthermore, non-Western, especially traditional, cultures often viewed nonhuman animals not as competitors to be conquered, but as fellow beings with whom to coexist (Keim, 2019). Perhaps, while learning from animal activists in earlier times, such as Bergh in the West, Churchill might also want us to learn from other cultures.
Bergh himself benefited from inherited wealth and had many connections among society’s upper crust. He had pursued a literary career, with little success, until his connections earned him a post at the U.S. embassy to Russia. There, he witnessed a driver savagely beating a horse. Bergh intervened, and in that act, he found his calling in life. Soon after, he left his diplomatic post, returning to the U.S. by way of England, where he visited leaders of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In the U.S., the ASPCA struggled against obstacles familiar to today’s animal activists, the principal one being the anthropocentric view that humans, supposedly being the superior of the Earth’s creatures, have the right to do to other animals as we see fit. Even though back then, like today, many people were sympathetic to the plight of our fellow Earthlings, people’s own convenience, comfort, and economic benefit came first. As one newspaper editorialized, ´“He (Bergh) is right, without doubt, in trying to prevent cruelty to animals, but he sometimes seems to forget that to man was given dominion over the beasts of the field” (p. 216). On behalf of 19th century humans, perhaps, they had fewer alternatives than we currently enjoy.
The 19th century debate about the treatment of nonhuman animals bore a resemblance to the debate about slavery in the U.S. Frederick Douglas, a former slave who became a leader for the rights of Black people, is quoted in the book as saying on behalf of our fellow animals, “A horse is in many respects like a man.” It was only in 1863, three years before the ASPCA’s founding, that slavery was abolished in the U.S. Just as “traitor to your race” was an insult hurled at white people who opposed slavery, Bergh and his colleagues sometimes heard themselves called “traitors to your species.”
Another criticism of the SPCA claimed that caring about nonhuman animals contradicted caring for humans, a charge today’s animal activist may also hear. At the same time, the ASPCA’s animal welfare campaigns often enjoyed the support of government officials, law enforcement organizations, and wealthy individuals. Plus, Bergh and the ASPCA counsel founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Bergh also campaigned for laws mandating flogging as the punishment for wife beating.
Today, intersectionality spurs efforts to unite animal causes with various other movements, e.g., LGBTQ?, green causes, and anti-racism. During Bergh’s time, animal activists found allies among those involved in movements to address issues of poverty, health care, disability, and prison conditions.
Nowadays, scientists provide animal activists a great deal of evidence for our view that other animals are so much more than objects. Even then, Louis Aggasiz, a natural history professor was called on to buttress SPCA’s case, such as about turtles. “I need not tell you,” the professor wrote in an open letter, “that men have always excuses enough to justify their wrong doings. So it was with the slave trade… so it is today with the turtle market” (p. 18).
Just as not all modern-day animal activists agree on tactics, so it also was in Bergh’s day. While he favored harsh physical punishment for animal abusers, others in the movement favored education. They distributed millions of posters, flyers, newspapers, and magazines, as well as developing materials for schools, including stories and songs. They also held essay contests and had a Band of Mercy Pledge. Additionally, the ASPCA promoted children’s literature, such as the novel Black Beauty, about a horse.
The book devotes different chapters to different forms of animal exploitation, such as dog and even rat fighting, and what the ASCPA did to oppose them. One chapter focuses on what was then a growing meat industry. Bergh did not practice a vegetarian diet, nor did he advocate for vegetarianism, although he had been horrified on visits to slaughterhouses and wished perhaps that humans had never started eating other animals. Advocating vegetarianism seemed to Bergh to be a lost cause, and he may have been right, given that even now only about 6% of Americans are full-time vegetarians or vegans (Vegetarian Resource Group, 2020).
Bergh passed away at age 74 in 1888 due to heart disease and bronchitis. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals still exists, and its website credits Bergh with founding it. In 2013, the New York City branch made an agreement with the local police to coordinate efforts, reminiscent of what Bergh and his colleagues had done 150+ years earlier.
In conclusion, another way that the efforts of Bergh and his ASPCA colleagues resonates today lies in the role of technology, rather than advocacy to reduce the suffering of our fellow animals. US cities seldom see horses pulling people not because people could no longer abide the suffering of horses or the stench of their manure and urine. Cars, not compassion, did the deed. Somewhat similarly, due to the invention of refrigeration, cows, pigs, etc. seldom endure journey of 1000s of kilometers to slaughterhouses. Instead, they are killed near the factory farms and their flesh is frozen, refrigerated, or otherwise processed for transport to faraway customers.
Churchill, quoted at the beginning of this review, not only studied history; he also predicted the future. One of his predictions from 1931 presaged what is under development today: making meat from a few cells of cows, chickens, fishes, etc., “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."
References
Keim, B. (2019, August 7). Coexistence isn’t just about science and self-interest. It’s about stories, too. Anthropocene. Retrieved from http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2...
Vegetarian Resource Group. (2020). Poll results. https://www.vrg.org/blog/2020/08/07/h....
In that spirit, I was immediately attracted by the title of the book A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement by Ernest Freeberg, a professor of History at University of Tennessee, in the U.S. The book not only teaches much about the lives of people and other animals in the U.S. in the first 25 years after the end of the Civil War (1861-1865), it also gives us much to ponder about animal activism today in comparison with similar movements of about 150 years earlier.
While I highly recommend the book, two possible mistakes in the title should be corrected from the outset. First, Bergh and his colleagues were more involved in animal welfare than in animal rights. Their view was that animals should be free from unnecessary pain, not free from human exploitation. For example, the organization Bergh helped to found in 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), was probably most famous for their actions on behalf of the horses who served at the time as a key means of transportation of transport people and goods. The ASPCA did not oppose the use of horses for this purpose; their campaigns were about better conditions for the horses, such as regular rests, reduced loads, and no beatings. Bergh also led campaign against the long-distance transport to slaughterhouses of cows, pigs, and even turtles. For example, cows would be transported 1000s of kilometers from the central U.S. for slaughter in the eastern U.S., which was the more densely populated part of the country.
A second possible mistake in the title of A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement is that the animal welfare movement which Bergh championed was not born in the U.S. It had begun in 1824 or earlier in the U.K. Furthermore, non-Western, especially traditional, cultures often viewed nonhuman animals not as competitors to be conquered, but as fellow beings with whom to coexist (Keim, 2019). Perhaps, while learning from animal activists in earlier times, such as Bergh in the West, Churchill might also want us to learn from other cultures.
Bergh himself benefited from inherited wealth and had many connections among society’s upper crust. He had pursued a literary career, with little success, until his connections earned him a post at the U.S. embassy to Russia. There, he witnessed a driver savagely beating a horse. Bergh intervened, and in that act, he found his calling in life. Soon after, he left his diplomatic post, returning to the U.S. by way of England, where he visited leaders of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In the U.S., the ASPCA struggled against obstacles familiar to today’s animal activists, the principal one being the anthropocentric view that humans, supposedly being the superior of the Earth’s creatures, have the right to do to other animals as we see fit. Even though back then, like today, many people were sympathetic to the plight of our fellow Earthlings, people’s own convenience, comfort, and economic benefit came first. As one newspaper editorialized, ´“He (Bergh) is right, without doubt, in trying to prevent cruelty to animals, but he sometimes seems to forget that to man was given dominion over the beasts of the field” (p. 216). On behalf of 19th century humans, perhaps, they had fewer alternatives than we currently enjoy.
The 19th century debate about the treatment of nonhuman animals bore a resemblance to the debate about slavery in the U.S. Frederick Douglas, a former slave who became a leader for the rights of Black people, is quoted in the book as saying on behalf of our fellow animals, “A horse is in many respects like a man.” It was only in 1863, three years before the ASPCA’s founding, that slavery was abolished in the U.S. Just as “traitor to your race” was an insult hurled at white people who opposed slavery, Bergh and his colleagues sometimes heard themselves called “traitors to your species.”
Another criticism of the SPCA claimed that caring about nonhuman animals contradicted caring for humans, a charge today’s animal activist may also hear. At the same time, the ASPCA’s animal welfare campaigns often enjoyed the support of government officials, law enforcement organizations, and wealthy individuals. Plus, Bergh and the ASPCA counsel founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Bergh also campaigned for laws mandating flogging as the punishment for wife beating.
Today, intersectionality spurs efforts to unite animal causes with various other movements, e.g., LGBTQ?, green causes, and anti-racism. During Bergh’s time, animal activists found allies among those involved in movements to address issues of poverty, health care, disability, and prison conditions.
Nowadays, scientists provide animal activists a great deal of evidence for our view that other animals are so much more than objects. Even then, Louis Aggasiz, a natural history professor was called on to buttress SPCA’s case, such as about turtles. “I need not tell you,” the professor wrote in an open letter, “that men have always excuses enough to justify their wrong doings. So it was with the slave trade… so it is today with the turtle market” (p. 18).
Just as not all modern-day animal activists agree on tactics, so it also was in Bergh’s day. While he favored harsh physical punishment for animal abusers, others in the movement favored education. They distributed millions of posters, flyers, newspapers, and magazines, as well as developing materials for schools, including stories and songs. They also held essay contests and had a Band of Mercy Pledge. Additionally, the ASPCA promoted children’s literature, such as the novel Black Beauty, about a horse.
The book devotes different chapters to different forms of animal exploitation, such as dog and even rat fighting, and what the ASCPA did to oppose them. One chapter focuses on what was then a growing meat industry. Bergh did not practice a vegetarian diet, nor did he advocate for vegetarianism, although he had been horrified on visits to slaughterhouses and wished perhaps that humans had never started eating other animals. Advocating vegetarianism seemed to Bergh to be a lost cause, and he may have been right, given that even now only about 6% of Americans are full-time vegetarians or vegans (Vegetarian Resource Group, 2020).
Bergh passed away at age 74 in 1888 due to heart disease and bronchitis. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals still exists, and its website credits Bergh with founding it. In 2013, the New York City branch made an agreement with the local police to coordinate efforts, reminiscent of what Bergh and his colleagues had done 150+ years earlier.
In conclusion, another way that the efforts of Bergh and his ASPCA colleagues resonates today lies in the role of technology, rather than advocacy to reduce the suffering of our fellow animals. US cities seldom see horses pulling people not because people could no longer abide the suffering of horses or the stench of their manure and urine. Cars, not compassion, did the deed. Somewhat similarly, due to the invention of refrigeration, cows, pigs, etc. seldom endure journey of 1000s of kilometers to slaughterhouses. Instead, they are killed near the factory farms and their flesh is frozen, refrigerated, or otherwise processed for transport to faraway customers.
Churchill, quoted at the beginning of this review, not only studied history; he also predicted the future. One of his predictions from 1931 presaged what is under development today: making meat from a few cells of cows, chickens, fishes, etc., “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."
References
Keim, B. (2019, August 7). Coexistence isn’t just about science and self-interest. It’s about stories, too. Anthropocene. Retrieved from http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2...
Vegetarian Resource Group. (2020). Poll results. https://www.vrg.org/blog/2020/08/07/h....
July 4, 2025
What an enlightening and depressing read of the first animal rights movement in the states. I had never heard the name Henry Bergh which is a shame considering how noble and brave he was for a time when the treatment of animals fell on indifferent consciences. This is still an issue in my opinion the biggest issue facing society today. And there’s still an indifference that seeps into the wider population.
While veganism and vegetarianism have been on the rise even within the past couple of decades we still face the issues the early SPCA movements faced. I’ve been vegetarian for five years, hoping to adopt a vegan diet soon. This goes back to the question Bergh encountered those early years. How do we make distinctions? Is there a difference between the trolley horse or a turtle? Or even a sewer rat and the dogs used by Kit Burn for fighting? Where does one draw the line in terms of suffering to an innocent creature? These are still questions that anti cruelty movements face today. And this doesn’t touch the surface of the carbon emission’s emitted by factory farms. Bergh gave us a blueprint on how we face indignation with bravery and boldness. My wish is to have factory farms disbanded but with mass consumption and capitalism convincing us we need more material things to fill us up I’m not hopeful but I’ll still continue to use my voice and actions just like Bergh did over a century ago.
While veganism and vegetarianism have been on the rise even within the past couple of decades we still face the issues the early SPCA movements faced. I’ve been vegetarian for five years, hoping to adopt a vegan diet soon. This goes back to the question Bergh encountered those early years. How do we make distinctions? Is there a difference between the trolley horse or a turtle? Or even a sewer rat and the dogs used by Kit Burn for fighting? Where does one draw the line in terms of suffering to an innocent creature? These are still questions that anti cruelty movements face today. And this doesn’t touch the surface of the carbon emission’s emitted by factory farms. Bergh gave us a blueprint on how we face indignation with bravery and boldness. My wish is to have factory farms disbanded but with mass consumption and capitalism convincing us we need more material things to fill us up I’m not hopeful but I’ll still continue to use my voice and actions just like Bergh did over a century ago.
June 20, 2021
“Often denounced as a traitor to his species, he forced his fellow citizens to reckon with aspects of our treatment of animals that most would rather ignore.”
This book delivered way more than expected in being not only a fascinating bio of a complex man, but also an examination of American social class, capitalism & law during the Gilded Age, all through the lens of our treatment of non-human animals.
Henry Bergh was middle aged when he had his come-to-Jesus moment while watching a horse being relentlessly whipped. A member of NYC’s wealthy elite, he could have spent the remainder of his days in easy luxury,but a passion for ending cruelty to animals was lit. He founded the ASPCA, boldly challenging rich & poor alike in print & in court in his quest to end cruelty towards animals. He had successes, such as the use of clay pigeons rather than live ones for trap shooting & revealing the cruelty of dogfights. Many said he went too far, valuing the lives of “brute, dumb beasts” over the livelihoods & welfare of fellow men. Others had their eyes opened to the cruelties that had become normalized.
By today’s standards, Bergh perhaps did not go far enough. He didn’t advocate vegetarianism, though he recognized it won the moral argument against cruelty, because he felt the “artificial custom” of eating animals was too much of a habit to be changed. His quest to end the openly disgusting slaughterhouse practices of the day inadvertently led to today’s intensive factory farming practices. Animals are being treated just as horribly, but now it is done more “efficiently” & is hidden from view. His focus on the urban treatment of animals was narrow-sighted; for example, his crusade to alter the way turtles were shipped (turtle cuisine was very popular among city elites) failed to address problems in the wild: ecosystem & population destruction.
Some today might want to retroactively “cancel” him for questionable things he said about immigrants & the working classes (his critics called him a misanthrope who was motivated more by dislike of fellow humans than love of animals). Yes, he said some shitty things, but they do not negate his good work. Bergh is to be commended for pressing the issue of animal rights & provoking “a searching national conversation about the relative value of human and nonhuman life.” He inspired many people, including those who founded societies to prevent cruelty to children. That dog or cat you share your home with, the harm of which would provoke outrage? You can thank Bergh & his allies for starting the massive cultural shift that allows your fur babies to exist as they do. Freeberg did an excellent job writing this. Highly recommended.
November 21, 2020
What an amazingly dedicated, if somewhat eccentric, animal activist Bergh was! The period of his groundbreaking work was 1866 - 1886, when nearly all business, agriculture, and most transportation depended on horse power. He founded the ASPCA, America's first animal anticruelty organization, and successfully promoted an anticruelty law that became a model for similar legislation elsewhere. He was repeatedly ridiculed in the press, but recognized that those articles led more people to think and talk about the treatment of animals.
Bergh had inherited great wealth and thus could have lived out his life quietly in luxury, but instead went out on the streets of New York City every day, regardless of weather, to catch and prosecute those who were mistreating animals. Although much of his work involved streetcar horses, being the most numerous, the book also covers his efforts on behalf of turtles, dogs (both the killing of strays and the cruel practice of dogfighting), bison, animal menageries established and promoted by P.T. Barnum ("animals as spectacle"), as well as abuse of livestock brought in from hundreds of miles away, and much more. One fascinating chapter details a horse epidemic in 1872 which spread rapidly and killed many thousands of horses, bringing business activity to a standstill, disrupting that year's harvest, and making the city's fires much harder to fight.
Despite his obvious empathy with animals, Bergh dismissed vegetarianism as a possible solution: "the prospect of converting carnivorous man into a strict vegetarian is not encouraging" (p. 153) He called meat eating "a deplorable necessity." Given his time period, he nonetheless accomplished a great deal, as the concluding chapter on his legacy shows. By the time of his death, all but four states had some version of his pioneering anticruelty legislation in place, and his work formed the basis of the animal rights movement we have today. The book covers far more than I have space here to mention.
The only drawback was reading page after page describing brutality toward animals--I almost stopped reading for that reason. However, I realized I couldn't appreciate Bergh's work without knowing what he faced.
Bergh had inherited great wealth and thus could have lived out his life quietly in luxury, but instead went out on the streets of New York City every day, regardless of weather, to catch and prosecute those who were mistreating animals. Although much of his work involved streetcar horses, being the most numerous, the book also covers his efforts on behalf of turtles, dogs (both the killing of strays and the cruel practice of dogfighting), bison, animal menageries established and promoted by P.T. Barnum ("animals as spectacle"), as well as abuse of livestock brought in from hundreds of miles away, and much more. One fascinating chapter details a horse epidemic in 1872 which spread rapidly and killed many thousands of horses, bringing business activity to a standstill, disrupting that year's harvest, and making the city's fires much harder to fight.
Despite his obvious empathy with animals, Bergh dismissed vegetarianism as a possible solution: "the prospect of converting carnivorous man into a strict vegetarian is not encouraging" (p. 153) He called meat eating "a deplorable necessity." Given his time period, he nonetheless accomplished a great deal, as the concluding chapter on his legacy shows. By the time of his death, all but four states had some version of his pioneering anticruelty legislation in place, and his work formed the basis of the animal rights movement we have today. The book covers far more than I have space here to mention.
The only drawback was reading page after page describing brutality toward animals--I almost stopped reading for that reason. However, I realized I couldn't appreciate Bergh's work without knowing what he faced.
January 20, 2025
Absolutely fascinating. Very well written, and carefully researched. Enlightening illustrations from original sources. I would love to read more by the author.
A complex set of issues, and a complex man. Turns out, for example, that Bergh was against vaccines. And while trying to protect passenger pigeons and green sea turtles, those species became unavailable for either kindness or torture.
I found it interesting that Bergh was not particularly fond of animals, and not particularly keen on fighting against cruelty to people. I empathize, though I appreciate that some of Bergh's colleagues did extend their work to protect children. The innocent are definitely more worthy, imo.
Among the arguments Bergh and his supporters made often is that cruelty begets more of the same. Raising children to be kind to small animals increases the likelihood that they will not grow up to beat their spouses or children. Laughing at boys who tie firecrackers to tails is wrong (though Captain Kirk called such an act 'mischief' in ST:TOS!).
Yet of course the fight continues. There are still underground dogfights, for crying out loud! In Oklahoma, it's only been recently made law that a pet left outside in the cold, if it dies, can cost its owner a fine. There is still more effort made to eliminate cats than to protect them. And many practices of factory farming are still cruel, but kept out of sight, so those of us who don't wish to face the facts of them don't need to.
Note that this all took place well over a century ago, but to this day we have people who claim that: "those who mistook the manly art of shooting for an act of cruelty could only be sissy sentimentalists bent on emasculating American society." :sigh:
And note this: "Those worried that too many dogs were replacing too many children surely looked with alarm at the new array of pet products created to lure the dog owners' dollars." I've seen that discussion in the news outlets just this year.
A complex set of issues, and a complex man. Turns out, for example, that Bergh was against vaccines. And while trying to protect passenger pigeons and green sea turtles, those species became unavailable for either kindness or torture.
I found it interesting that Bergh was not particularly fond of animals, and not particularly keen on fighting against cruelty to people. I empathize, though I appreciate that some of Bergh's colleagues did extend their work to protect children. The innocent are definitely more worthy, imo.
Among the arguments Bergh and his supporters made often is that cruelty begets more of the same. Raising children to be kind to small animals increases the likelihood that they will not grow up to beat their spouses or children. Laughing at boys who tie firecrackers to tails is wrong (though Captain Kirk called such an act 'mischief' in ST:TOS!).
Yet of course the fight continues. There are still underground dogfights, for crying out loud! In Oklahoma, it's only been recently made law that a pet left outside in the cold, if it dies, can cost its owner a fine. There is still more effort made to eliminate cats than to protect them. And many practices of factory farming are still cruel, but kept out of sight, so those of us who don't wish to face the facts of them don't need to.
Note that this all took place well over a century ago, but to this day we have people who claim that: "those who mistook the manly art of shooting for an act of cruelty could only be sissy sentimentalists bent on emasculating American society." :sigh:
And note this: "Those worried that too many dogs were replacing too many children surely looked with alarm at the new array of pet products created to lure the dog owners' dollars." I've seen that discussion in the news outlets just this year.
June 10, 2020
A Traitor to His Species is the morbidly entertaining tale of ASPCA founder Henry Bergh and his tireless mission to convince Gilded Age mindsets to take animal rights seriously. Ernest Freeberg treats his subject honestly and fairly throughout, painting an admirable portrait of a noble, yet very flawed man and movement who faced ridicule and skepticism from a public convinced of man’s dominion over the “dumb brutes” that increasingly crowded their lives in growing cities. The narrative can be a bit jarring in tone at times, reflecting the strangeness of the time period and the uphill fight the movement faced: for every turtle abuser Bergh has arrested in the streets, we have accounts of teamsters clubbing horses to death and giant cages of stray dogs lowered into the river to drown, all in full view of the public and considered very normal.
Decidedly not for the faint of heart, but an interesting snapshot of history and a mark of how far Bergh’s legacy reaches among the animal rights movements of today. Well worth a read if only for Bergh’s continuous battles with P.T. Barnum, a pantomime villain if there ever was one, whose large collection of exotic animals and questionable usage of it continually made him a target of Bergh’s ire.
**Thanks to Netgalley and Basic Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
Decidedly not for the faint of heart, but an interesting snapshot of history and a mark of how far Bergh’s legacy reaches among the animal rights movements of today. Well worth a read if only for Bergh’s continuous battles with P.T. Barnum, a pantomime villain if there ever was one, whose large collection of exotic animals and questionable usage of it continually made him a target of Bergh’s ire.
**Thanks to Netgalley and Basic Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
November 21, 2020
I received a complimentary eARC for an honest review of this book.
In the late 1800s, Henry Bergh had no reason to give a flip about animal welfare. In today’s times, we’d call him a “trust fund baby.” His family benefited durning the Gilded Age, he didn’t have to worry about making a living.
However, connections and fate let him to a diplomatic post in St. Petersburg, during which he observed the cruelest treatment of an exhausted horse and it stirred his moral crusade. This isn’t to say that he had radical ideas to not use animals for work or for nourishment—he sought to make humans more humane.
In this engaging and superbly researched work, Freeberg shows a man true to his convictions, putting his time and money into the establishment of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). He takes on dogfighting ring thugs, PT Barnum, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and more. As his fame (or infamy) grows he inspires a movement across the country.
Highly recommend this read for anyone interested in the animal rights movement or history buffs.
#NetGalley
In the late 1800s, Henry Bergh had no reason to give a flip about animal welfare. In today’s times, we’d call him a “trust fund baby.” His family benefited durning the Gilded Age, he didn’t have to worry about making a living.
However, connections and fate let him to a diplomatic post in St. Petersburg, during which he observed the cruelest treatment of an exhausted horse and it stirred his moral crusade. This isn’t to say that he had radical ideas to not use animals for work or for nourishment—he sought to make humans more humane.
In this engaging and superbly researched work, Freeberg shows a man true to his convictions, putting his time and money into the establishment of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). He takes on dogfighting ring thugs, PT Barnum, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and more. As his fame (or infamy) grows he inspires a movement across the country.
Highly recommend this read for anyone interested in the animal rights movement or history buffs.
#NetGalley
November 27, 2020
While this book is partly a fascinating biography of Henry Bergh, it is more so a gripping, and frequently disturbing, look at the lives of animals in Gilded Age America. Bergh was a real character who roamed the streets of late nineteenth century New York trying to improve the living conditions (and end-of-life conditions) for all sorts of animals. He fought for turtles who were tortured on their way to becoming soup. He fought against the cruelties of shooting pigeons for target practice. He fought for the stray dogs and cats that filled city streets. He fought for more humane treatment for the cows and pigs that were ultimately destined to feed a growing nation. Elephants, rats, snakes, and even orphaned children all captured Bergh’s attention and sympathies. I was most taken in by the chapters about the struggles of horses and mules who hauled around the people and goods of an increasingly industrialized society. Overall, this is a book about industrialization and the costs of that process on humans and animals alike.
December 21, 2020
Very inciteful reading about Henry Bergh, the man who began the movement for animal rights in establishing the SPCA. He accomplished much in gaining sentiment and compassion for abused animals used for human profit and greed. From horses worked to death for pulling overloaded trolleys,horses maimed due to pulling barges and protecting animals that were eventually destroyed for human consumption and killing off feral dogs , who were overwhelming in the cities. He dedicated his mission for animals to die with as little pain as possible, for he saw animals as God's creatures who also felt pain and needed man's protection and good care. Licensing for dogs as pets originated from him for protection and he fought against those who promoted dog and cock fighting and the abuse and exploitation of animals in circuses. Violence of animals contributed to more violence toward humanity and he also promoted for the protection of children. He accomplished much in changing society's perception and behavior toward God's creatures.
December 17, 2020
As an animal liberation activist, this was an important book to read. While I don’t find Henry Bergh to have been an animal rights advocate, I do see how his work was so very important to the origin of the movement. Most of Bergh’s work would be considered animal welfarism which is completely different from animal rights/liberation. This book was very thoroughly researched and written in an engaging style. I’m usually not one for history books but I found this to be a good read for everyone, not just history buffs.
Sadly, society has not changed much since Bergh’s work which the author acknowledges. I think that makes this work all the more essential reading. This would be great for high school or college students to read, discuss, and use for papers and projects.
Thank you to Ernest Freeberg, Perseus Books, Basic Books, and #NetGallery for an ecopy in return for an honest review. Review will be posted on NetGallery, Facebook, and Instagram.
Sadly, society has not changed much since Bergh’s work which the author acknowledges. I think that makes this work all the more essential reading. This would be great for high school or college students to read, discuss, and use for papers and projects.
Thank you to Ernest Freeberg, Perseus Books, Basic Books, and #NetGallery for an ecopy in return for an honest review. Review will be posted on NetGallery, Facebook, and Instagram.
December 17, 2022
A difficult but important read for anyone interested in the history of the animal rights and welfare movement. Thoroughly researched and well-written, it's also heartbreaking at how horrifically we treated animals, evoking visceral reactions to the abuse of animals more than a century ago. I had to put this down several times to take a break. That being said, this is an amazing primer on the animal rights movement: it's triumphs, it's losses, it's limitations, it's ongoing battles (some of which still date back to Bergh's time), and it's future. Henry Bergh was a mercurial character, both ahead of his time in the best way interms of animal rights, and of his time in the worst way in anti-immigrant sentiment. I'd like to learn more about his contemporaries, George Angell and especially the indomitable Caroline Earle White.
I won this book through a giveaway by Basic Books and thank them for publishing this important work.
I won this book through a giveaway by Basic Books and thank them for publishing this important work.
September 30, 2020
I won this book in a giveaway on Goodreads. I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The way the writer presents the history and facts is not often seen, From the explanation's of the way the turtles were bound to the way the gas chamber was used. Though while the author mention's Henry Bergh's nationalism he skirted around it and put more focus on the good and outlandish things, I wish there had of been more of a emphasis on his racism being wrong than just an unfortunate quality. The images used in the book drive their point home still even now today. And while the narrative does focus on Henry Bergh it does also mention other's people who were prominent in the animal right's movement. I do recommend this if you want to know more about the animal rights movement and Henry Bough, though if you are sensitive to descriptions of violence to animals please do proceed with that in mind.
January 4, 2021
Every generation of readers deserves a fresh biography of this great enigma of the 19th century--a man who idled away most of his life before finding his cause in his later years; a sensitive sort who would court ridicule in the newspapers if it advanced his mission; a dandified gent who fought carriage drivers in the streets and waded ankles-deep in slaughterhouse gore; a savior to dumb beasts who wasn't really fond of animals, and even less so of humans; and a fanatic whose cause was righteous and who singlehandedly moved the needle of public morality. Freeberg does a solid job of capturing the wildness of post-Civil War New York City and the various campaigns in the career of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA.
May 31, 2021
Those readers seeking a biography of Henry Bergh, the father of today’s animal rights and anti-cruelty movements, will not find it in this book. However, for those interested in a history of the founding of the movement and the ASPCA, and the movement’s early battles against animal cruelty, this book will be of great interest. The book takes episodes from Bergh’s life to paint a portrait of some of the key battles by Bergh and other founders to prevent animal cruelty. It provides little if any background information on Bergh’s early life, the motivation for his actions, or his personal or private life, which would have made this biography more insightful.
Its conclusion examining Bergh’s legacy is preachy and a bit slanted towards the animal rights movement.
Its conclusion examining Bergh’s legacy is preachy and a bit slanted towards the animal rights movement.
February 20, 2025
This man was a saint, ahead of his time in the 19th century. He's the man that addressed animal cruelty, questioned current practices, and was an advocate for God's creatures without a voice. Many anti cruelty laws were enacted from Bergh and his work. I do have to give warnings to future readers. Reading the history of cruel practices and treatments to turtles, dogs, cats, pigeons, elephants, horses....etc. is incredibly hard to get through. However, I do think it's a good thing to know of how we started and what has transpired into so many good things. Many organizations have been built based on Bergh's moral fight of making things humane.
December 7, 2020
I chose this book based on the title alone. I do not consider myself an animal rights activist but a passive supporter of the movement. All in all, I enjoyed this book. The book was thoroughly researched and largely entertaining. I did find the middle to be a bit jumbled chronologically, but it still remained readable. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the outgrowth of the abolitionist movement to combat animal abuse and, to an extent, child abuse in the decades following the Civil War.
February 11, 2021
Revealing history. The rise of animal welfare groups comes just a little after the movement to abolish the slave trade and slavery. This comes out of an effort to limit suffering, not equate animals and humans. "In the (Civil) war's aftermath, animal welfare activists adapted the powerful arguments honed by the abolitionists, using them to protest against the suffering of animals they often described as "silent slaves." Henry Bergh founded the American SPCA and, despite a lot of ridicule, espoused the idea that animals, like humans, have rights.
September 8, 2020
Henry Bergh at the age of 53 created the ASPCA to stop the cruelty of animals. This is a story about the creation of the ASPCA and the fight against cruelty.
I had never heard of Henry Bergh and this was an interesting biography. It is divided into chapters of the fights the ASPCA took on to protect animals during his lifetime. He had many successes but also failures in trying to stop the cruelty. It is sad to say that the fight to prevent cruelty is still ongoing over a century later.
Thank you@BasicBooks and #goodreads for the free book.
I had never heard of Henry Bergh and this was an interesting biography. It is divided into chapters of the fights the ASPCA took on to protect animals during his lifetime. He had many successes but also failures in trying to stop the cruelty. It is sad to say that the fight to prevent cruelty is still ongoing over a century later.
Thank you@BasicBooks and #goodreads for the free book.
October 25, 2020
An interesting look at a man far ahead of his time and the way that Gilded Age people horribly mistreated animals. A few sections could get a little dry, but it was pretty amazing to see how much Bergh's idea spread through years of his work and after his death. I also appreciate that the book does show his prejudices, though I would have liked to see a bit more acknowledgment of him being a racist and being against vaccines.
April 27, 2022
Despite the book's dark subject matter, I found that I was able to breeze through this book thanks to the heavy focus on the antics of this biography's charismatic central figure: Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA. I especially found the chapters focusing on the evolution of how society has handled problems like stray dogs to be very informative, with the book providing several useful resources for further study.
March 15, 2024
As much a study of the 19th and early 20th century animal welfare movement at large as it is a biography of Henry Bergh this history was an interesting, straight-forward examination of the impact of Bergh’s movement. The author might have provided a more inclusive consideration of Bergh’s contemporary heirs, including the ASPCA, as it currently exists, and what is arguably Bergh’s spiritual heir, PETA. A minor quibble (or “Kibble”??) in an otherwise solid work.
January 23, 2023
As an animal lover, this was a very difficult book to get through. Not because it was poorly written, but because there are so many descriptions of animal suffering. I know it is important to describe this so that the reader can understand what Bergh and the early animal rights movement was fighting against and accomplished, but be warned - most of the book will make you want to cry.
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