For over 100 years, The American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals has helped animals who have been abused or neglected. During this month of April, which is Animal Cruelty Awareness Month, it is a good time to explore the ways the ASPCA continues to help millions of animals each year.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) founded by Henry Bergh, has been around for 147 years. Bergh, son of a prominent shipbuilder, was born in 1813. As an adult, he traveled to London, England to get information about animal cruelty from a man named Earl of Harrowby, president of England’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was founded in 1840.

According to information posted on ASPCA.org, on April 10, 1866, Bergh convinced politicians and committees in New York to approve the charter incorporating the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Nine days later, an anti-animal-cruelty law was passed, and the ASPCA was granted the right to enforce it. Since that time, the ASPCA has worked throughout the country to rescue animals from abuse, pass humane laws and share resources with many shelters across the country. In different states, there are different charges for the animal abuse, some animal abusers can end up with fines or imprisonment, and some can be charged as a felon.

The result of the hard work of the ASPCA is all around us. In 1928, euthanizing rate for dogs and cats were at a 511 for every 10,000 people and by 1994 the rate had dropped to 53 per 10,000 people in the state of New York, ranking it one of the best cities in the country. In 1896, people adopting dogs and cats numbered in the hundreds and now they are in the thousands. When a family pet runs away and gets lost, they wouldn’t know how to locate them until the ASPCA developed a method in the mid-1980s to insert a tiny microchip into the animals skin to locate where they are. The ASPCA has been implanting these chips into animals like cats and dogs since the early 1990s.