It happened at the corner of Washington and Sansome streets in San Francisco on a spring day in 1868. Prominent local banker James Sloan Hutchinson was making his way along Sansome when he witnessed a horrifying sight. Two horsemen roped a stray hog, bound its front and hind legs, and dragged the terrified, squealing animal along the rough cobblestone street. Appalled, Hutchinson stepped in to stop the cruelty and rescued the hog.
The incident crystallized Hutchinson's concern over widespread animal abuse. He immediately went to the State Legislature with a bill that made cruelty to animals a crime and provided for the incorporation of "anti-cruelty societies" in California. The Governor signed the measure into law on March 30th.
Hutchinson then rallied 15 like-minded citizens to form the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On April 18th, the 16-member San Francisco SPCA received its charter from the State of California. It was the nation's fourth humane society, and the first west of the Mississippi.
And so it was that one man's inspired activism sparked the humane movement in the western United States and launched the San Francisco SPCA, which has become one of San Francisco's most enduring and respected institutions, as well as a national leader in saving homeless cats and dogs.
