page_title: Caroline Earle White
section_title: American Anti-Vivisection Society
hierarchical_section_title: Caroline Earle White / Animal advocacy / American Anti-Vivisection Society
caption_attribution_description: International Anti-Vivisection Congress. Back row: Mrs. Clinton Pichney Farrell, Mrs. Florence Pell Warning. Front row: Mrs. Caroline E. White, Miss Lizzy Lind af Hageby, Mrs. R. G. Ingersoll.
context_page_description: Caroline Earle White was an American philanthropist and anti-vivisection activist. She co-founded the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1867, founded its women's branch in 1869, and founded the American Anti-Vivisection Society in 1883.
  White was also an active clubwoman, and was involved in literary societies and women's suffrage, and worked with organizations that helped the poor obtain medical services.
context_section_description: In 1871, physician S. Weir Mitchell wrote a letter to White requesting that the WPSPCA relinquish unwanted dogs from their shelter to his research hospital, for experimental purposes. Horrified, White called an Executive Committee meeting which resulted in a strenuous resolution protesting vivisection. This action would lead White into several controversies with many prominent scientists.
  Frances Power Cobbe, British antivivisectionist and feminist, advised White to create an organization that would address the use of animals in testing, research and education. In 1883, she founded the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS), the first of its kind in the United States. Although the group harbored an absolutist stance, AAVS initially pursued a more flexible approach to attempt to end the practice. The board of directors was mainly composed of physicians.
  The organization utilized the support of celebrities, politicians, and writers, including Mark Twain, to validate the issue and raise awareness. The American Anti-Vivisection Society sponsored traveling exhibits depicting the horrors involved in animal testing. One important stop was the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Volunteers passed out millions of leaflets addressing the topics of pets stolen for research and the deplorable housing provided for lab animals. Partnering with the Massachusetts SPCA, AAVS successfully campaigned to ban vivisection in elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts. Other states soon followed suit.
caption: Caroline Earle White (front row, left) at the International Anti-Vivisection Congress in Washington, D.C., December 1913.
  (Left to right, back row: Mrs. Clinton Pinckney Farrell, Florence Pell Waring. Front row: Caroline Earl White, Lizzy Lind af Hageby, Mrs. Robert G. Ingersoll)
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