Animals' Friend Society

The Animals' Friend Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was an animal welfare organisation founded in London in 1832 by Lewis Gompertz and T. Forster after Gompertz resigned from the RSPCA. It was a nonsectarian body that sought to prevent cruelty to animals through education, advocacy, and legal action, reporting over 3,000 prosecutions by the mid-1840s. The society published The Animals' Friend, or, the Progress of Humanity (1833–1841), edited by Gompertz, and maintained several local branches before disbanding following his retirement in 1846. Independent offshoots using the name remained active in towns such as Birmingham and Luton later in the nineteenth century. In 1910, Ernest Bell revived the name for a new organisation based in London, supported by figures including Thomas Hardy, and published the periodical The Animals' Friend (1894–1930) and related humane education materials.