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Founded in 1886 by one Henry Bergh* the A. S. P. C. A. fulfills few of its original functions, though its purpose has not changed. In New York City it now collects all the dog taxes; its uniformed agents have police powers and carry 38 Colt revolvers, possess summons books and can prosecute offenders in magistrate court. Their duties include the collecting of stray dogs who are then penned together in metal and concrete pens and given a killing dose of carbon dioxide gas if after 48 hours they are unclaimed or deemed unfit to be given away. A. S. P. C. A. agents, aided by state police, last week broke up a cock fight at Goshen, N. Y., arrested 125 men, rescued 49 cocks. Its revenue is derived from members' dues and donations, as well as dog owners' license fees. Yearly expenditures approximate $500,000, with a deficit of $20,000, covering operations in New York City. Although a state organization, all its county agents are volunteers.
In one year, the A. S. P. C. A. examined 109,438 horses, to make sure that they were not lame, sore, unfed, overloaded, raced, abused or neglected. Horses and dogs are the main concern of the Society, though it views with alarm any neglect or abuse of cats, mistreatment of fowl, cruelty to performing monkeys, the improper caging of trained bears, failure to water circus lions, the skinning alive of rabbits. Its active members are apt to be businessmen, lawyers, smart sporting people, animal fanciers. Its president is Frank K. Sturgis. Onetime president of the National Horse Show, onetime president of the Turf and Field Club, he succeeded August Belmont as Chairman of the U. S. Jockey Club. Unlike those old ladies who feed truck horses lump sugar from paper bags in their purses, he is no sentimentalist; unlike Henry Bergh, he is a cosmopolite without being a freak. Now 83, he still summers at Newport. His stern, mustachioed countenance has changed little since the days when, a member of Strong. Sturgis & Co., he was president of the New York Stock Exchange, or those when his thoroughbreds raced at fashionable meets. A club-window face, it was often seen behind the Fifth Avenue panes of the Metropolitan Club of which, like most other organizations to which he has belonged, Frank Sturgis was once president. He is now a director of the New York Hospital, the Bloomingdale Hospital.
*Onetime Secretary of the American Legation, St. Petersburg, Russia, Founder Bergh was appalled by the beatings which droshky-moujiks administered to their horses. In London, he visited the Royal S. P. C. A. and on his return to the U. S. began moves for a similar organization. At first he made butchers driving to the abattoir untie the legs of calves, scolded horse beaters, haled cock fight fanciers into court. In 1866 he obtained a charter for the A. S. P. C. A. Later in life he suffered from dyspepsia, wrote childish plays, attended first nights at the theatre. P. T. Barnum attended his funeral in 1888