Membership certificate containing four vignettes depicting people interacting with animals. Shows a deer carcuss dropped in the street from the back of a speeding game wagon; a dog lying, on guard, next to a baby sleeping in a cradle; a soldier's horse nuzzling its fallen rider; and a woman feeding seed to fowls in a pasture. Scroll, floral, and horticultural elements border the text and vignettes. Also contains the seal of the society, the Pennsylvania coat of arms, and the motto "The Merciful Man Regardeth the Life of his Beast." Society seal shows an angel raising her hand in protest of a wagon driver beating his work house. The PSPCA was organized by Philadelphia businessman Colonel M. Richards Mucklé in 1867 and incorporated in 1868. It was the second humane society in the country with horse abuse as the organization's initial primary concern., Not in Wainwright., Issued to John T. Morris, ca. 1873. Signed Pliny E. Chase, Secretary and Al[fred] Elwyn, President., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 563, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Certificates - Pennsylvania Society Cruelty, Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Societies - Certificates, P. S. Duval, Son & Co. operated as a firm 1867-1869., Elwyn, a trained physican and philanthropist, served as president of the PSPCA 1871-circa 1875.
Date
[ca. 1868]
Location
Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Certificates - Pennsylvania Society Cruelty
