MSPCA-Angell

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center (MSPCA-Angell) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its main headquarters on South Huntington Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1868, and is the second-oldest humane society in the United States. "MSPCA-Angell" was adopted as the society's identity in 2003, and indicates the names of its two closely related predecessor organizations: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Angell Animal Medical Center (formerly known as Angell Memorial Animal Hospital). The organization provides direct care to thousands of homeless, injured, and abused animals each year, and provides animal adoption, a veterinary hospital, advocacy, and humane law enforcement.

History

In 1868, after reading about two horses being raced to death by carrying two riders each over forty miles of rough roads, George Thorndike Angell, a Boston Brahmin lawyer, began a high-profile protest of animal cruelty. He joined with Emily Appleton, a Boston socialite and animal lover who provided financial support and they, along with 1,200 others, formed the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). Among distinguished locals on the first board of directors were John Quincy Adams II, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Saltonstall, and William Gordon Weld.