Good morning, old friends and new friends. For those of you who have been on the animal welfare conference tour ’26, I hope you’re all taking a much needed respite at home. I certainly am.

As of late, I’ve been exploring our view of cats during the time period before they were regularly entering pounds, but after the advent of the humane movement. What I’ve discovered is that our collective opinion (and treatment) of cats could not have varied more wildly. Some cats were deeply beloved family members, others were employed for vermin control, and still others were subject to inexplicable horrors. Nothing was off the table.

What this research has reinforced for me is just what an undertaking the early goal of the humane movement truly was; To work to convey not only that kind treatment of living creatures was fundamental to the evolution of our moral society, but also what that kind treatment looked like in practice.

Below, find a collection of articles sourced from U.S. newspapers in 1880. A small trigger warning for my new friends. Some of these articles are not pleasant at all and involve cruel and inhumane themes.

Since I seem to have so many new regular readers showing up lately, I’ll also point out that you can subscribe to this blog by clicking “subscribe” in the upper right, and receive it weekly in your inbox. I’m glad you’re here.

-Audrey