Anna Harris Smith

Anna Clapp Harris Smith, née Ann Sarah Smith, (1843–1929) was an American animal welfare activist. She is known for founding the Animal Rescue League of Boston in 1899.

Her league offered shelter to stray animals and care to beasts of burden. Anna Harris Smith improved the living conditions of animals by creating amenities for them, as well as the Horses Aid Association and the Pine Ridge Home of Rest for Horses. She also started the magazine Our Four-Footed Friends, which is still active nowadays and shares the Animal Rescue League's actions.

Anna Harris Smith also had to face a post-rabies pandemic context in which stray animals, especially dogs, were perceived as a threat to public health. As people sought to control the population of stray animals and the disease, Anna Harris Smith and her husband created the "Automatic Electric Cage" which aimed at killing them humanly and efficiently.

In 2020, the song "A Walk in Her Shoes" was composed for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in honor to Anna Harris Smith.

Early life Smith was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on July 23, 1843. Surrounded by her grandfather, her mother Ann Larkin Clapp, and her father, William Harris; Anna H. Smith grew up as a fervent Christian in Dorchester. She studied in public schools and at the New England Conservatory. She also followed private classes of French and music.

However, the newspaper Spirit of the Times denounced, in July 1874, a "crusade" against "the entire canine species," and compared this violence towards dogs to a "persecution as ignorant and wantonly cruel as that of the witches of New England, or the Jews of the Middle Ages."

Following the idea of considering animals with humanity, Anna Harris Smith's husband, Huntington Smith, invented and patented in 1911 the "Automatic Electric Cage." The cage was then adopted in shelters from all around the United States. Her goal was to improve the living conditions of animals and to reduce their suffering, which she witnessed in the mistreatment of working horses and the amount of stray animals in the streets of Boston.

Moreover, in 1913, the league started an annual tradition, Christmas Dinner for Horses. Members would offer "a meal of oats, carrots and apples to working horses of Boston". This lasted until the 21st century.

Today, the ARL is still active in various locations across the country and act as a non-profit organization, helping stray animals in need.

Musical composition In 2020, Francine Trester, a college professor of composition and composer, wrote "A Walk in Her Shoes", five poems turned to music, for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. This musical composition honors Anna H. Smith and four other Dorchester women.