Caroline Earl White

—The Women’s Branch of the Pennsylvania SPCA created the first animal shelter for dogs and cats in the United States, set up in Philadelphia by Caroline Earle White and 29 other women.

—White was instrumental in previously setting up and raising money for the Pennsylvania SPCA in 1867. But because women were not allowed to have leadership roles, they started the first Women’s Branch of the SPCA in 1869 (with the encouragement of the SPCA’s president).

—Not only were they pioneers with their all-female leadership, they changed the basic approach for handling stray or lost animals. At that time, the fate of dogs and cats found by poundmasters was typically to be killed in the most convenient way—whether it be clubbing, strangling, or drowning. The Women’s Branch instead took in and cared for stray dogs and cats and worked to find them homes—basically pioneering the shelter-and-adoption approach we have today. There are 3,500 animal shelters in the US today; the Women’s Branch of the Pennsylvania SPCA is what got it all started.

—After turning down the requests of University of Pennsylvania researchers to use the shelter’s dogs and cats for experimental purposes, Caroline Earle White went on to set up the American Anti-Vivisection Society, in 1883.

—The Women’s Branch (since renamed the Women’s Animal Center) is still in operation today, more than 150 years later, providing extensive services to the greater Philadelphia area—expanding its core shelter-and-adoption mission to also include resources for pet owners, a low-cost veterinary hospital, and humane education programs.

—Millions of animals nationwide have benefited greatly from the vision and efforts of those 30 women!

When it comes to the last hour of your life, it will be a great consolation to feel that you always protected the poor,
the helpless, and the unfortunate; and that you exercised
a particular care towards animals.

Caroline Earle White