Humane Education of the Young by Mrs. Anna Harris Smith

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1905

Humane Education of the Young

By Mrs. Anna Harris Smith

One of the most important factors in elevating a family or a race is kindness. The savage was never taught to be kind. Our ancestors, not so many generations back, believed that might was right, and cared nothing for their neighbors' rights or for justice.

The men and women who tried to remedy these evils and abuses had to struggle along the way step by step, ridiculed as cranks and sentimentalists by the majority, until by persistence they won, and slavery is now looked back upon with horror. Yet with all this past history to warn and to teach us, there are still great cruelties existing, and the strong are still oppressing and abusing the weak. Until the selfish life generally is condemned, and until mankind has learned to live the golden rule, as well as to talk about it, we shall have war, strikes, sweat-shops, child labor, and all the horrible cruelties that are now inflicted on the lower animals.

To try to uplift man to a better state of living, by beginning in our own little corner to teach the things that make for happiness and peace, is, then, the first and foremost duty of every mother and teacher. The foundation upon which a better and a happier world must be built is kindness to every living creature. To teach kindness is to prepare the way for a child to be happier all through life; for selfishness and cruelty are just as certain to bring sorrow as taking poison is certain to cause illness or death.

The mother who allows her child to squeeze and torment the kitten or the puppy, and is resentful if any observer interferes, is sowing misery for herself and her child. I have known three cases in which the sons of wealthy families were noted for their cruelty to the small animals and birds in their boyhood, and unrestrained in it by their parents. I happened to be able to follow the after-life of these boys, and they brought sorrow and disgrace on their families before they were twenty-five years old.

Because there is so much cruelty to the lower animals and such utter disregard of their comfort in many families, I saw, six years ago, that a great need existed for one home, among the many homes and missions in the city, to which homeless, deserted, abused dogs and cats could be carried, and humanely cared for, thus saving as many of them as possible from the streets where cruel men and boys, and sometimes women, beat, stoned, kicked, and scalded them, to drive them from their premises, or to gratify their own cruel and savage instincts. I put an article in the Boston Transcript stating this need, and asking men and women to join me in forming a league, the members of which would work for the support of the place where such homeless animals could be received. I went also to the houses and offices, and through personal interviews gained good helpers; then we organized and incorporated a society, with membership fees of one dollar and five dollars a year for associate and active members; we hired a house with a yard, and engaged a man and his wife to live there and receive and care for the animals.

Such shelters, as society is now constituted, are needed in every city. When they are established, and homeless dogs and cats are brought in, then, if not before, the terrible cruelty of some of our children will be discovered—of some, thank God not all, for every day kind and well-taught children bring to our doors wretched cats and kittens that they have rescued from boys who were using them for targets, or tossing them about as balls, or stoning them for sport, or setting dogs on them. One boy who beat a dog nearly to death said that his mother told him to do it in order to drive the dog away. A number of boys and girls who have been caught in the act of dropping kittens on the streets or in vacant lots have said that their mothers made them do it. Do these mothers realize that some day the children may find the old mother in the way, and may desert her? What can they expect if they never try to cultivate in their children unselfishness, a fair and just consideration of another living creature's rights, and thoughtfulness about causing suffering? — Mrs. Anna Harris Smith, president Animal Rescue League, in American Motherhood for March.

(To be concluded)