To “Save from Suffering”: Eugenics and Animal Euthanasia in the Early Twentieth-Century American Humane Movement

Taking the American humane movement and its conception of animal euthanasia as a case study, this article pushes for a more expansive understanding of the multispecies nature of eugenics as it was developed in the early twentieth-century United States. Not only did animals serve as test subjects for eugenic theories but their place in human society was indelibly shaped by eugenic thinking and its influence on the Progressive-era humane movement. Reading together the child welfare and animal sheltering efforts of humane organizations, this article demonstrates that core humane practices were rooted in eugenic visions of family reform. Which animals would be permitted to live and which animals must be killed were questions humane advocates came to answer through their definition of the fit family. Attending to this history demonstrates the need for new understandings of the relationship between animals and eugenic science, beyond that of the model organism.