INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR XV. 



wards of two hundred such societies incorporated in 

 the United States, beginning with the parent society 

 incorporated in New York in 1866 and designated as 

 'The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals.' The officers and agents of these soci- 

 eties are clothed with police powers, may arrest and 

 prosecute offenders against the laws relating to animals 

 and investigate and follow up complaints made to 

 them. They are also a factor in procuring more 

 advanced and completer humane legislation. 



But good and noble as is the work of these soci- 

 eties, it is along the lines of repression that their 

 activities largely lie ; and there are other worthy fields 

 of effort. Long study and observation had given Mr. 

 Ensign the conviction that not a little of the com- 

 moner forms of cruelty to animals was due to thought- 

 lessness rather than depravity ; that people would treat 

 animals better if they really knew better. Humane 

 education became, therefore, his dominant idea and 

 purpose ; as he expressed it, 'not education by the 

 arm of the law, not by force, but by the gentler yet 

 more powerful effect of persuasion. Force may pre- 

 vent brutality in public, but it is unable to check it 

 where it is unseen. It does not prevent an offender 

 from wreaking vengeance on an unfortunate animal 

 for whose ill-treatment he has suffered punishment. 



