Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, History | 491 tecting animals from cruelty and abuse Although the first animal protection bill to be introduced in Parliament failed miserably in 1800, in 1822 a pioneering piece of legislation was enacted Known as Martin’s Act, after its originator and chief advocate Richard Martin, it aimed to prevent cruel and improper treatment of cattle, which included most farm and draft animals, but not bulls or pets Later legislation was passed in 1835, 1849, and 1854, and periodically extended protection until all domesticated mammals, as well as some wild mammals in captivity, were covered These extensions did not inspire universal rejoicing For example, the first extension of the provisions of Martin’s Act, in 1835, specifically prohibited the keeping of places dedicated to fighting or baiting bulls, bears, badgers, dogs, and cocks, which had become local institutions in many rural communities Bull baiting or bull running, where people and dogs chased an animal through village streets before cornering and killing him, were particularly cherished traditions of this type and, perhaps for that reason, particularly obnoxious to humanitarian reformers When, supported by the 1835 act, they attempted to suppress such observances, they often encountered physical as well as moral resistance For example, the bull running at Stamford, Lincolnshire survived several attempts at suppression Finally, in 1838, the local magistrates and the RSPCA successfully enforced the ban by calling in twelve London policemen and a troop of dragoons When the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1824, one of its primary goals was to ensure that the provisions of the new legislation actually took effect The SPCA funded its own special corps of constables, and instructed civilian sympathizers in how to arrest the variety of aggressive wrongdoers who might be encountered in the streets, including livestock drovers and recreational sadists, as well as cabmen and wagoneers Despite the initial obstacles it faced, the SPCA (RSPCA beginning in 1840, when Queen Victoria granted the Society permission to add the prefix “Royal” to its name) was successful on every front As legal protections for animals expanded, so did the Society’s membership, in both numbers and social prestige It boasted a series of royal patrons, and the aristocracy was heavily represented on its governing board By the 1900s, the RSPCA epitomized respectable philanthropy, the kind of charity routinely remembered in the wills of the prosperous With such powerful backing, the size of the RSPCA increased from its initial complement of only a few men, to eight officers by 1855, 48 by 1878, and 120 by 1897 In its first year of operation, the society conducted 147 successful prosecutions under Martin’s Act By the end of the century successful prosecutions peaked at over 8,000 per year, before horses, the most frequent victims of prosecuted offenses, were replaced by motor vehicles One reason that cab horses and draft horses figured so prominently in RSPCA prosecutions was that there were many them, and they were abused in plain sight on the public streets But another was that their abusers were apt to belong to the part of human society where the middle and upper-class members of the RSPCA expected to encounter depraved behavior Indeed, it is likely that some humanitarians viewed the animal protection laws as a useful supplement to existing legal and social mechanisms for controlling unruly humans When animals suffered