The object of the Band of Mercy is to awaken in the hearts of children a feeling of kindness toward everything that lives.
The members promise to do all they can to relieve the suffering around them, and to speak for the dumb animals that cannot speak for themselves.
There are no dues. The members choose their own name and elect their own officers.[A]
Mr. George T. Angell, who was a great lover of animals, formed the first American Bands of Mercy in 1882. Mr. Angell lived to be eighty-six years old, and spent almost the whole of his long life in working for the kind treatment of every living creature.
SOME THINGS THAT MR. ANGELL TOLD BOYS AND GIRLS
Well, the fact is that horses and dogs do not have any money. They are poorer than the poorest boy or girl here today. No matter how hard they work, they cannot buy an apple or a stick of candy, or even a lump of sugar; and so, because they have no money, I have been in the habit for a good many years of talking for them.
Ever since I was a boy, I have been very fond of dumb animals. As a lad, I hardly ever went by a kind, good-looking horse or dog without stopping to have a talk with him.
Boys who are taught to feed birds, and to pat the horses, and to speak kindly to all lower creatures become a good deal better fellows.