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A Traitor to His Species

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Ernest Frithiof Freeberg tells the story of A Traitor to His Species, about a great guy who spoke for the voiceless and changed our relationship with animals.

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 31, 2024

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This video video discusses the life and impact of Henry Berg, the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Berg, a wealthy man who turned to animal welfare at the age of 53, was deeply influenced by his experiences in Russia during the Civil War, where he witnessed harsh treatment of horses. This video video led him to advocate for animal rights upon returning to the U.S. and learning from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the UK.

Berg's efforts helped establish the first organized movement against animal cruelty in the U.S., and he actively campaigned for laws protecting various animals, expanding the definition of cruelty beyond just livestock to include all creatures. His work was controversial as he faced opposition from those who objected to his interventions in established practices.

Berg's legacy is notable for its role in the evolution of societal attitudes towards animals, demonstrating a significant shift from viewing animals merely as economic assets to recognizing their welfare. His approach, which combined activism and legal authority for his organization, set important precedents for future animal rights movements.

This video video also highlights the broader context of the animal welfare movement, including contributions from other figures and organizations, and underscores how societal views on animals have changed over time. It notes that while there have been advancements in animal protection, there remain unresolved ethical challenges related to animal welfare that persist into modern times.

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Partly, I was drawn by that central protagonist,

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Henry Berg, who's a fascinating character,

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who was the founder of the A-S-B-C-A, the American Society

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for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

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which was the first, in the United States, the,

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the First State organization, to try

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to a promote animal welfare and,

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and largely to fight animal cruelty.

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Uh, and Henry Berg is the central character,

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because he was the founder and,

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and really the, the, the leading, evangelist

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for this movement, for about 20 years,

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starting right after the Civil War.

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What's so fascinating about Berg is that he was,

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53 when he came to this work.

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He was up till that point, a wealthy, young man

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who had inherited money from his father

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and spent most of his time traveling the capitals of Europe

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and, writing very bad plays

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and very malin poetry, hoping to have a literary career.

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Uh, and when that obviously wasn't working out,

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he got assigned by Lincoln to the, to, the,

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the embassy in, in Russia, during the Civil War.

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It was at that point that he, he apparently, the,

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the Teamsters in St.

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Petersburg were even worse to their horses than

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the American drivers were.

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And he was on the streets,

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and he saw, a teamster beating a horse.

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Uh, and he, he demanded that this person stopped,

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and, the, the teamster did, dropped his whip,

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you know, and, and Berg said

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that was the greatest thing he'd ever done.

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You know, he suddenly felt like he had a calling.

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Uh, so he, he, left his position in Russia,

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stopped in in, England to learn about the Royal Society

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for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which had started,

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about four decades earlier.

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Uh, and then brought that idea to the United States and,

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and incorporated it.

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So, so we have here, a a man who is, wealthy, who,

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never failed to be on the streets

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of New York without his top hat and his silver cane

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and his spats, doing battle against

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all those various people who were being cruel to animals,

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some of it very mundane, routine cruelty that was just part

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of the system, and some of it, much worse than that.

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And, and, and Berg went after them all.

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Uh, so I, so he's really, the, the person that drew me

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to this, to this topic was to sort

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of understand his motivations, and,

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and his wider impact.

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I'm kind to animals, in my daily life and,

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and very supportive of the movement.

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Uh, but it really was more from a historical

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perspective that I was interested.

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And I'm pretty, I was, you know, I was interested largely

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because I, I, a lot of my work has been about this period,

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the late 19th century, the early 20th century, as a,

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the period when many of our modern institutions

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and values, come into focus.

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And I think if you look at

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what the United States cities are like

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In the 1860s, you see an enormous number of animals

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interacting with human beings at, at, at every level.

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You know, big packs of stray dogs,

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and obviously horses providing much

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of the power stockyards in the center

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of cities and so forth.

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Uh, lots of people having this,

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a milk cow in the back alley of their, tenement.

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Uh, and by, by the early 20th century, that starts

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to change drastically.

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Uh, and now we consider, one,

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historian of this movement, put it very well, I thought,

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said that now we think of animals in the city as,

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as either pets or pests, you know, and,

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and so our, our engagement, our connection

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to animals is quite different.

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Uh, and I, I think the berg

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and this movement is an interesting way to get at sort

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of the, the, the evolution of that, of that, that change,

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both kinder to animals,

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but also they're, they're more invisible to, to at least

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to urban dwellers than they were in the,

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in the late 19th century.

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I spent a lot of time in, in Henry Berg's papers.

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Uh, he had terrible handwriting, which was unfortunate,

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but, the, it went through his letters, so,

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which were quite voluminous and, and, and,

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and coverage of, of, of his work was quite wide,

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and it was quite controversial.

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So it was interesting to see, the number of people,

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many, many people embraced Berg said, of course, we're,

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we're nobody's in favor of cruelty,

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but when it came to the kind of cruelty

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that they were practicing, they had objections.

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And so there was, there was always debates

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and controversy over Berg, showing up in the papers.

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Another important part of the research, though, was

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to realize that while Berg was the sort

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of the highest lightning rod of the movement,

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that he was just one part of a much wider, you know,

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thousands and thousands of, of men

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and women, in the United States joined organizations,

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smaller branches of the, of the SPCA movement,

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and particularly in Boston, George Angel founded,

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the Massachusetts Society

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for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

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He still, fondly remembered

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and centrally remembered, in Massachusetts,

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and he was really a founder of what we think of now

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as humane education in the United States, sort

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of rather than punishing those who are ac cruel,

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instead cultivating a, a sense of generosity

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and empathy among younger people.

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Uh, and then, and then, the Quaker Ladies

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of Philadelphia, is particularly Carolyn Earl White,

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founded an organization in, in Philadelphia

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that was also very instrumental in developing some,

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some new ideas about animal welfare.

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So they were, I had spent some time in, in those archives

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as well, which were also quite deep and, and rich

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and interesting to try to capture this, that walberg is a,

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is a fascinating character,

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and really was provoked a lot of the,

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what I think most interesting controversies.

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Uh, they were also an important part of

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what actually we've inherited,

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in the United States in terms of anti cruelty, and,

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and contributing to what was really, as you're pointing out,

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that the R-S-P-C-A sort of an international movement.

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I think then the thing that distinguishes Berg from,

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from others, including the, the R-S-P-C-A, first

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of all, he passed the state law.

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Uh, again, nobody was against cruelty, so it wasn't

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that hard to get major players involved in,

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in a law against cruelty,

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but most of them expected that this would be,

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would be designed to protect, horses and,

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and maybe livestock.

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Uh, nobody thought that it would extend more,

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more broadly than, than that.

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And, Berg passed a law that said it was

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basically a protection, a against cruelty to all creatures.

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And so when he started to wage a campaign

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to defend the rights of, of sea turtles

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that were being shipped into,

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into the city flipped upside down, ropes put

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through their flippers, you know, as the standard way

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to ship them from up, from, from, the Caribbean,

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people were outraged.

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Why would you defend the rights of turtles?

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You know, why would you defend the rights of stray dogs?

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Why, why cats, you know,

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pigeons entering the, the pigeon shoots.

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Um, so he, he, he ex pushed this much further

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even than many of his supporters, would, would expect.

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The other very important contribution from Berg is that he

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put into the law a sort of quasi-legal authority for

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his organization, which was,

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which was a very important precedent for the movement,

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basically arguing this, the, the police are either not able

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to identify cruelty when they see it

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or not willing to punish the cruel, you know, the line

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between acceptable, exploitation of animals

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and cruel exploitation of animals was, was,

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still being worked out.

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It still is, for us, I think in many ways.

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Uh, so Berg said, let our agents, our,

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our appointed agents be in the field either to make sort

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of citizens arrests, quasi citizen arrests,

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or else to, to, to get the police involved and,

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and point them toward violations.

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So it was really, you know, there had been laws

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before that encouraged people to be, not to be cruel,

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largely to protect other people's cattle.

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You know, you can't, you can't

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bother somebody else's livestock.

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Uh, but this, this was far more expansive and, and,

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and had a lot of teeth in it that,

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so when Berg was not simply, you know, a preacher

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for animal rights,

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but instead was actually going out in the streets

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and arresting people, that inevitably drew lots

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of attention, which, you know, was berg often lost in court.

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Uh, but every time he was in court, he managed

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to make a speech and raise the profile of the movement,

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and, and, and push the point much further,

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than it would've been pushed otherwise.

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It's interesting to me that this movement began in, in,

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in urban environments, you know, and, and,

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and largely in areas where people increasingly

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didn't own their own animals.

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You know, it was much harder to, to push this idea into,

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into rural areas where people were

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using animals in all sorts of, domestic ways and hunting

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and fishing and that sort, that sort of thing.

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So in some, in some ways, I think the, you know,

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it was really a matter of, of an urban movement,

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and a changing sensibility.

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You were watching people be cruel to their horses.

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You were watching the suffering of stray dogs being,

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being rounded up and killed in the streets.

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I, I think you didn't have the same investment in being able

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to treat your own animals however you wanted to.

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Uh, so there was a sort of shared collective responsibility,

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and really it's part of a much wider, growth of empathy.

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And, and, and during what, you know, what evolved into what,

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what, you know, in,

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in American historians usually call the progressive

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movement, to sort of stamp out, I mean, that there's a,

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there's an obvious link between animal rights and,

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and concerns about, about, abuse of women

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and children, for example.

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And the two movements were, were very much in sync,

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and in some ways, the,

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the child welfare movement evolves out of

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the animal welfare movement.

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So there's a change in sensibility about cruelty that's,

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that is happening in this time period,

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in the United States as well as in, in Britain,

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that this reflects, he worked right, right to the end,

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as, as, as a leader of movement.

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And, you know, it was about 20 years, that,

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of his life, which, which, he was a, he was a,

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you know, became kind of a legend.

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Everybody, you know, in, in cities all across the country,

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if somebody stood up to defend animals, they'd say,

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here's another Henry Berg, you know, and,

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and the movement, was often called Bism.

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Uh, so he, he, he developed that, that that strong legacy,

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and, and never really failed to go

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after high profile cases.

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I mean, my favorite is his ongoing battles with,

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with PT Barnum, the, the circus entrepreneur,

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over mistreatment of circus animals.

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Uh, and, and the two came to learn, very much

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to enjoy each other's company in a lot of ways.

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And to each one

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of them benefited from the publicity when they had a face

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off over the mistreatment of an elephant or,

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or, or, or something.

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Uh, in fact, when, when Bird died, Barnum,

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donated money to create a, a, a fountain in his honor,

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in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and,

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and was one of his pallbearers.

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So, many people, you know, throughout Berg's life,

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people said, he's crazy.

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You know, he is taking a good idea

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and taking it far, too far, too far.

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Uh, but very often they would say, well,

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but somebody needed to do that.

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Somebody needed to, to, to push the, the conversation.

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You know, we may not agree with everything he says,

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but somebody has to be saying these things in order

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to force us to be thinking about,

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about animals in a different way.

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So I think, you know, in many ways that's, that's probably,

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you know, what, how Berg was remembered.

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I hope it gets people to understand

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how central animals have been in, in human culture,

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and they remain.

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So I think one of the important observations I think I made

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in the book was that many of the moral questions that,

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that bergs so effectively raised are not really resolved.

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They're rather moved out of our site.

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I mean, I think the prime example

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of this is the euthanization of, of stray dogs and,

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and cats, right?

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Where that was done in a quite brutal fashion in, in,

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in the middle of the streets, you know, our,

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our dogs were rounded up and paid a bounty and,

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and dispatched in, in horrendous ways.

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The A-S-P-C-A

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and the SPCA movement more broadly figured out ways to,

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to euthanize thousands of animals.

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You know, oddly

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and paradoxically, this movement became the largest killer

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of these animals, right?

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But it's invisible for most of us.

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We don't have to think about it in quite the same way.

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Uh, same way with our, with livestock.

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You know, the mistreatment of livestock was quite visible

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to any urban dweller in 19th century America, when,

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when the animals were walking through the streets

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and were being butchered down the street

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or in a, you know, on the edge of the, of the city.

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Now it's a distant thing,

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and we only experience that, you know, the, the, those

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who are working for the animal welfare

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and animal rights at this point have to work very hard

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to have us see the implications

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of the way we're treating animals.

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Uh, so there's a sort of mixed legacy. I think, for us.

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We need to be, appreciative of the accomplishments,

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while at the same time recognizing the limitations,

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of the movement in the 19th and early 20th century.

Henry Berg: Pioneer of Animal Welfare

00:00:00 - Partly, I was drawn by that central protagonist, Henry Berg, who's a fascinating character, who was the founder of the A-S-B-C-A, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was the first, in the United States, the, the First State organization, to try to a promote animal welfare and, and largely to fight animal cruelty. and Henry Berg is the central character, because he was the founder and, and really the, the, the leading, evangelist for this movement, for about 20 years, starting right after the Civil War.
00:00:38 - 53 when he came to this work. He was up till that point, a wealthy, young man who had inherited money from his father and spent most of his time traveling the capitals of Europe and, writing very bad plays and very malin poetry, hoping to have a literary career. and when that obviously wasn't working out, he got assigned by Lincoln to the, to, the,
00:01:10 - It was at that point that he, he apparently, the, the Teamsters in St. Petersburg were even worse to their horses than the American drivers were. And he was on the streets, and he saw, a teamster beating a horse. and he, he demanded that this person stopped, and, the, the teamster did, dropped his whip, you know, and, and Berg said that was the greatest thing he'd ever done. You know, he suddenly felt like he had a calling.
00:01:40 - stopped in in, England to learn about the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which had started, about four decades earlier. and then brought that idea to the United States and, and incorporated it. So, so we have here, a a man who is, wealthy, who, never failed to be on the streets of New York without his top hat and his silver cane and his spats, doing battle against
00:02:09 - some of it very mundane, routine cruelty that was just part of the system, and some of it, much worse than that. And, and, and Berg went after them all. so I, so he's really, the, the person that drew me to this, to this topic was to sort of understand his motivations, and, and his wider impact. I'm kind to animals, in my daily life and, and very supportive of the movement. but it really was more from a historical perspective that I was interested.
00:02:40 - because I, I, a lot of my work has been about this period, the late 19th century, the early 20th century, as a, the period when many of our modern institutions and values, come into focus. And I think if you look at what the United States cities are like In the 1860s, you see an enormous number of animals interacting with human beings at, at, at every level. You know, big packs of stray dogs,

Evolution of Urban Animal Perception

00:03:10 - of the power stockyards in the center of cities and so forth. lots of people having this, a milk cow in the back alley of their, tenement. and by, by the early 20th century, that starts to change drastically. and now we consider, one, historian of this movement, put it very well, I thought, said that now we think of animals in the city as, as either pets or pests, you know, and,
00:03:42 - to animals is quite different. and I, I think the berg and this movement is an interesting way to get at sort of the, the, the evolution of that, of that, that change, both kinder to animals, but also they're, they're more invisible to, to at least to urban dwellers than they were in the, in the late 19th century. I spent a lot of time in, in Henry Berg's papers. he had terrible handwriting, which was unfortunate, but, the, it went through his letters, so, which were quite voluminous and, and, and,
00:04:15 - and it was quite controversial. So it was interesting to see, the number of people, many, many people embraced Berg said, of course, we're, we're nobody's in favor of cruelty, but when it came to the kind of cruelty that they were practicing, they had objections. And so there was, there was always debates and controversy over Berg, showing up in the papers. Another important part of the research, though, was to realize that while Berg was the sort
00:04:45 - that he was just one part of a much wider, you know, thousands and thousands of, of men and women, in the United States joined organizations, smaller branches of the, of the SPCA movement, and particularly in Boston, George Angel founded, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He still, fondly remembered and centrally remembered, in Massachusetts,
00:05:15 - as humane education in the United States, sort of rather than punishing those who are ac cruel, instead cultivating a, a sense of generosity and empathy among younger people. and then, and then, the Quaker Ladies of Philadelphia, is particularly Carolyn Earl White, founded an organization in, in Philadelphia that was also very instrumental in developing some, some new ideas about animal welfare.
00:05:45 - as well, which were also quite deep and, and rich and interesting to try to capture this, that walberg is a, is a fascinating character, and really was provoked a lot of the, what I think most interesting controversies. they were also an important part of what actually we've inherited, in the United States in terms of anti cruelty, and, and contributing to what was really, as you're pointing out, that the R-S-P-C-A sort of an international movement. I think then the thing that distinguishes Berg from,

Henry Berg's Landmark Animal Protection Law

00:06:17 - of all, he passed the state law. again, nobody was against cruelty, so it wasn't that hard to get major players involved in, in a law against cruelty, but most of them expected that this would be, would be designed to protect, horses and, and maybe livestock. nobody thought that it would extend more, more broadly than, than that. And, Berg passed a law that said it was basically a protection, a against cruelty to all creatures.
00:06:49 - to defend the rights of, of sea turtles that were being shipped into, into the city flipped upside down, ropes put through their flippers, you know, as the standard way to ship them from up, from, from, the Caribbean, people were outraged. Why would you defend the rights of turtles? You know, why would you defend the rights of stray dogs? Why, why cats, you know, pigeons entering the, the pigeon shoots. so he, he, he ex pushed this much further
00:07:23 - The other very important contribution from Berg is that he put into the law a sort of quasi-legal authority for his organization, which was, which was a very important precedent for the movement, basically arguing this, the, the police are either not able to identify cruelty when they see it or not willing to punish the cruel, you know, the line between acceptable, exploitation of animals
00:07:55 - still being worked out. It still is, for us, I think in many ways. so Berg said, let our agents, our, our appointed agents be in the field either to make sort of citizens arrests, quasi citizen arrests, or else to, to, to get the police involved and, and point them toward violations. So it was really, you know, there had been laws before that encouraged people to be, not to be cruel,
00:08:24 - You know, you can't, you can't bother somebody else's livestock. but this, this was far more expansive and, and, and had a lot of teeth in it that, so when Berg was not simply, you know, a preacher for animal rights, but instead was actually going out in the streets and arresting people, that inevitably drew lots of attention, which, you know, was berg often lost in court. but every time he was in court, he managed
00:08:57 - and, and, and push the point much further, than it would've been pushed otherwise. It's interesting to me that this movement began in, in, in urban environments, you know, and, and, and largely in areas where people increasingly didn't own their own animals. You know, it was much harder to, to push this idea into, into rural areas where people were using animals in all sorts of, domestic ways and hunting and fishing and that sort, that sort of thing.

Henry Berg and the Urban Animal Welfare Movement

00:09:27 - it was really a matter of, of an urban movement, and a changing sensibility. You were watching people be cruel to their horses. You were watching the suffering of stray dogs being, being rounded up and killed in the streets. I, I think you didn't have the same investment in being able to treat your own animals however you wanted to. so there was a sort of shared collective responsibility, and really it's part of a much wider, growth of empathy. And, and, and during what, you know, what evolved into what,
00:09:59 - in American historians usually call the progressive movement, to sort of stamp out, I mean, that there's a, there's an obvious link between animal rights and, and concerns about, about, abuse of women and children, for example. And the two movements were, were very much in sync, and in some ways, the, the child welfare movement evolves out of the animal welfare movement. So there's a change in sensibility about cruelty that's, that is happening in this time period,
00:10:31 - that this reflects, he worked right, right to the end, as, as, as a leader of movement. And, you know, it was about 20 years, that, of his life, which, which, he was a, he was a, you know, became kind of a legend. Everybody, you know, in, in cities all across the country, if somebody stood up to defend animals, they'd say, here's another Henry Berg, you know, and, and the movement, was often called Bism. so he, he, he developed that, that that strong legacy,
00:11:05 - after high profile cases. I mean, my favorite is his ongoing battles with, with PT Barnum, the, the circus entrepreneur, over mistreatment of circus animals. and, and the two came to learn, very much to enjoy each other's company in a lot of ways. And to each one of them benefited from the publicity when they had a face off over the mistreatment of an elephant or, or, or, or something. in fact, when, when Bird died, Barnum,
00:11:38 - in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, and was one of his pallbearers. So, many people, you know, throughout Berg's life, people said, he's crazy. You know, he is taking a good idea and taking it far, too far, too far. but very often they would say, well, but somebody needed to do that. Somebody needed to, to, to push the, the conversation.
00:12:10 - but somebody has to be saying these things in order to force us to be thinking about, about animals in a different way. So I think, you know, in many ways that's, that's probably, you know, what, how Berg was remembered. I hope it gets people to understand how central animals have been in, in human culture, and they remain. So I think one of the important observations I think I made in the book was that many of the moral questions that, that bergs so effectively raised are not really resolved.

Legacy and Limitations of Animal Welfare Movements

00:12:41 - I mean, I think the prime example of this is the euthanization of, of stray dogs and, and cats, right? Where that was done in a quite brutal fashion in, in, in the middle of the streets, you know, our, our dogs were rounded up and paid a bounty and, and dispatched in, in horrendous ways. The A-S-P-C-A and the SPCA movement more broadly figured out ways to, to euthanize thousands of animals. You know, oddly and paradoxically, this movement became the largest killer
00:13:16 - But it's invisible for most of us. We don't have to think about it in quite the same way. same way with our, with livestock. You know, the mistreatment of livestock was quite visible to any urban dweller in 19th century America, when, when the animals were walking through the streets and were being butchered down the street or in a, you know, on the edge of the, of the city. Now it's a distant thing, and we only experience that, you know, the, the, those who are working for the animal welfare
00:14:01 - to have us see the implications of the way we're treating animals. so there's a sort of mixed legacy. I think, for us. We need to be, appreciative of the accomplishments, while at the same time recognizing the limitations, of the movement in the 19th and early 20th century.

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