Anna Clapp Harris Smith, née Ann Sarah Smith, (1843âÂÂ1929) was an American animal rights activist. She founded the Animal Rescue League of Boston in 1899.
The league was created during a context of post rabies pandemic. It offered housing and care to stray animals and beasts of burden. With her husband, they contested the usual ways of killing animals to control their population and the disease.
Today, the Animal Rescue League of Boston is still an active organization which takes care of stray animals. They honor the founder of the organization on March 13th, named the Anna Harris Smith Day.
Her house is now considered worthy of becoming a landmark of Boston and a song was composed to celebrate her achievements in 2020.
Smith was born in Dorchester on July 23, 1843. Surrounded by her grandfather, her mother Ann Larkin Clapp, and her dad, William Harris; Anna H. Smith grew up as a fervent Christian in Dorchester, Boston where she got a good education. She studied in public schools but also at the New England Conservatory and followed private classes of French and music as she enjoyed writing.
Smith used to be a music teacher before starting her journalist career during her forties. In 1884, she married her husband William Huntington Smith, a literary translator and newspaper editor. She then started working for the Boston Beacon as an assistant editor from 1889 to 1899 and joined in April 1890 to represent this newspaper.
The 19th and 20th centuries were marked by a rabies pandemic. Before the development of the vaccine in the 1880s, the disease instilled a sentiment of fear within human relations with animals. At a time when the number of pets was increasing in American cities, this health issue led dogs to become the main target of human hate and cruelty.
In 1914, the New York City health commissioner Sigismund S. Goldwater criticised the presence of stray dogs in the city, arguing that they endangered public health: "they are a nuisance from the point of view of sanitation, and there is always the danger of rabies."
However, the newspaper Spirit of the Times denounced, on July 1874, a "crusade" against "the entire canine species," and compared this violence towards dogs to a "persecution as ignorant and wantonly cruel as that of the witches of New England, or the Jews of the Middle Ages."
Stray animals were also considered as "superfluous animal life", and killing them was seen as more humane than leaving them in the streets, exposed to starvation and disease.
Following the idea of considering animals with humanity, Anna Harris Smith's husband, Huntington Smith, invented and patented in 1911 the "Automatic Electric Cage." The cage was then adopted in shelters from all around the United States.
As many animals that were taken into shelters had to be killed because of sanitary conditions or financial reasons, this invention became a humane and effective alternative to the criticised methods used by municipal authorities and agents of anti-cruelty societies (such as drowning, shooting, gassing, poisoning with cyanide).
In 1899, Smith founded the Animal Rescue League of Boston, a rescue and adoption shelter for stray cats and dogs. Her decision was made after witnessing the living conditions of animals, the mistreatment of working horses and the amount stray animals in the streets of Boston. Concerned and shocked, Smith wanted to help improve the conditions of animals and reduce their suffering. She devoted herself to the cause and used her wealth to implement amenities, like water bassins for cats and dogs but also the Horses Aid Association so that the city's horses could get free health care.
The first meeting of the Animal Rescue League of Boston took place at the Park Street Church on February 7, 1899 where over a hundred people came together. This was the first step towards the creation of the league in March 13th, 1899. The league later expanded to receive other animals and include the working animals that were famished and ignored. In 1910, the league offered a home to 25 784 animals, including cats, dogs, mice, birds and rats.
Smith also inaugurated the Pine Ridge Home of Rest for Horses (Pine Ridge Pet Cemetery), in 1907, established from a ten-acre farm in Dedham, Massachussets. It is the oldest pet cemetery operated by an animal welfare organization in the United States.
Moreover, the league started an annual tradition, Christmas Dinner for Horses, in 1913. Members would offer " a meal of oats,carrots and apples to working horses of Boston". This lasted until the 21st century.
She also created the Our Four-Footed Friends magazine in April 1902. Now a bi-annual magazine, Our Four-Footed Friends shares the ARL's latest works.
Her motto, "Kindness Uplifts the Wold", was and is still the core of the league.
Today, the ARL is still active in various locations across the country and act as a non-profit organization, helping stray animals in need.
The house of the late Clapp family, located at 65 Pleasant Street in Dorchester, is considered significant to the city of Boston. It was constructed by Samuel Clapp, Anna Harris Smith's maternal grandfather. She lived there from her birth to the age of 65.
Her house was voted worthy of becoming a Boston landmark in 2007.
March 13th is celebrated by the Animal Rescue League of Boston as the Anna Harris Smith Day. Their goal is to remember the day their organization was created and to honor its founder.
In 2020, Francine Trester, a college professor of compostion and composer, wrote "A Walk in Her Shoes", five poems turned to music, for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. This musical composition honors Anna H. Smith and four other Dorchester women.