Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is the name of many organizations throughout the world that work to foster and promote animal welfare. These anticruelty, or humane , societies help enforce animal protection laws by investigating reports of animal mistreatment. They also maintain shelters and adoption services for lost or unwanted animals. Originally, most anticruelty societies were founded chiefly to protect work animals. Today, these organizations work primarily to protect pets.
The first anticruelty society was founded in 1824 in England. In 1866, Henry Bergh, a New York philanthropist, founded the first such society in the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The New York legislature chartered the ASPCA the same year. It became a model for other anticruelty societies that were later founded in the United States.
Today, the United States has hundreds of local anticruelty societies. Many of them maintain animal hospitals and humane education programs. They also perform low-cost birth control operations to prevent pet overpopulation.
See also Animal cruelty .
