Humane Education is part of a larger cultural shift in the way people have started to think about our relationships with the animals we share the planet with. Below is a timeline of some of the key moments in this broader history.
1751: William Hogarth’s “Four Stages of Cruelty” published
1822: “Martin’s Act” passed in Britain
1824: Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed (RSPCA)
1866: Henry Bergh founds the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
1867: Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) is founded
1868: George T. Angell founds the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)
1868: Our Dumb Animals, the publication of the MSPCA (and later the AHES) is founded
1869: Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed
1870: Education Act passed in Britain
1875: Catherine Smithies forms the first Band of Mercy in Britain
1875: Frances Power Cobbe forms the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in Britain
1877: Anna Sewell publishes Black Beauty
1877: American Humane Association (AHA) formed
1877: Michigan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed
1882: George T. Angell and Rev. Thomas Timmins start Bands of Mercy in the USA
1883: Caroline Earle White founds the American Anti-Vivisection Society
1886: Humane Education made compulsory in the state of Massachusetts
1888: Rev. S. Massey starts the first Canadian Band of Mercy in St. Henri, Quebec
1889: American Humane Education Society formed
1890: George T. Angell brings Black Beauty to readers in the United States
1891: National Canine Defence League founded
1893: Margaret Marshall Saunders publishes Beautiful Joe after winning a competition sponsored by the American Humane Education Society
1897: Our Dumb Friends’ League was founded
1898: Frances Power Cobbe forms the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV)
1905: William O. Stillman and Stella H. Preston form the New York Humane Education Committee
1905: Oklahoma and Pennsylvania legislate mandatory Humane Education in schools
1906: The Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society was established by Louise Lind af Hageby and Nina Duchess of Hamilton
1909: The State of Illinois introduces legislation requiring Humane Education in schools
1910: Detroit Humane Society formed
1912: Our Dumb Friends’ League establishes the Blue Cross fund to assist animals injured in war
1915: The first “Be Kind to Animals Week” takes place
1915: Angell Memorial Hospital opens at the MSPCA
1916: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) forms a Humane Education Department
1916: American Red Star Animal Relief is formed to assist animals injured in war
1917: People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals is established in east London
1918: The Latham Foundation was founded
1918: The MSPCA and AHES form the first Jack London Club
1920: First screening of Bell of Atri by the AHES
1925: AHA establishes the William O. Stillman fund for Humane Education
1927: Nina Halvey forms the Miss B’Kind Club
1936: The Anti-Cruelty Society began a radio program called Animals in the News
1937: The Anti-Cruelty Society began a Humane Education program, and Virginia Sedgwick was hired as the Society’s first full time Humane Educator
Be Kind: A Visual History of Humane Education 
I just came across a 1 inch round coin, to hang on a necklace, that says Humane Poster Contest 1927 on the back. The front shows a woman and young child with a large (great dane?) looking up. Around the coin “Humane Education” The American SPCA. I think it was my mothers who would have been 13 years….any clues?
In 1943, a self-taught artist at 16 years old, I entered the Latham Foundation’s international poster competition, Educate For Peace and, total surprise, won First Prize. —Harris Barron
105 years ago, Illinois required Humane Ed to be taught in schools. How we have regressed.