Education & Advocacy

Women's Animal Center established the first humane education school programs and junior humane societies in the country shortly after our founding in 1869. Known as the Band of Mercy, the program taught children the importance of compassion toward animals, and subsequently charged them with the task of identifying and reporting cases of animal cruelty within their own communities across the city of Philadelphia.

The Band of Mercy’s Humane Code of Honor included pledges such as ‘I will give up my pleasure or gain to aid a creature in distress,’ and ‘I will enrich my life with deeds of kindness and acts of love.’

Our founder, Caroline Earle White, once advised, “Teach a child not to be cruel to animals and you are teaching him one of the fundamentals of humane conduct.” Well over 100 years after this statement was made, humane education and animal advocacy remain at the heart of the Women's Animal Center's mission, as we continue our generations-long work to ensure an ever-kinder future for all creatures with whom we share this earth.