Holiday Calendar

Be Kind to Animals Month

Next celebratedSaturday, May 1, 2027

A month-long observance through May encouraging compassion toward animals and attention to their welfare, care, and humane treatment.

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Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of May
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYAwareness
SUBCATEGORYAnimal Welfare
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A month grown from the country's oldest humane week.

No founder or establishment record has been documented for a month-long Be Kind to Animals Month. It extends Be Kind to Animals Week, which American Humane created at its October 1914 annual meeting and first held in May 1915, and which American Humane calls the oldest commemorative week in American history.

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INTRO

The kindness campaign that went on the week the Lusitania sank

In May 1915, a German torpedo had just sent the RMS Lusitania to the bottom of the Atlantic. The country was reeling. That same week, humane groups across America went ahead with a brand-new event anyway: the first Be Kind to Animals Week, observed May 16 to 22.

The idea was almost too simple to argue with. Set aside some days to treat animals gently and to teach children to do the same. More than a century later, that small idea has stretched across the whole of May.

Be Kind to Animals Month is the longer, looser cousin of that original week. The week is the documented one, run by American Humane since 1915. The month is the warm sprawl around it: thirty-one days when shelters, humane societies, and pet owners lean into the same plain request the 1915 organizers made.

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ORIGINS

Be Kind to Animals Month history

INTRODUCTION

The month borrows its meaning from a movement that is older than the calendar entry. To see where May's kindness theme comes from, start with the people who decided cruelty to animals was a public matter, not a private one.

CHAPTER 01

Before the week, a Sunday in church

The American animal-welfare movement had a clear starting gun. In 1866, Henry Bergh founded the ASPCA in New York City, the nation's first animal welfare organization. Eleven years later, in 1877, American Humane formed as the country's first national humane organization. Kindness to animals now had institutions behind it.

The week itself grew out of church. Several congregations had held an annual "Mercy Sunday," where clergy preached on the humane treatment of animals. It was a good idea without a national sponsor.

CHAPTER 02

A resolution in Atlantic City

That changed in the fall of 1914. At American Humane's annual meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, leaders adopted a resolution. Communities should observe a "Humane Sunday," then a week to be known as Be Kind to Animals Week.

The first observance landed the next spring, in the grim shadow of the Lusitania. The country was at the edge of war, and still the new campaign went ahead. The plain little idea had found its moment.

CHAPTER 03

Posters, presidents, and a place on the calendar

The week became a fixture, and it picked up famous backers. In 1922, President Warren G. Harding issued an official proclamation for the week. Illustrator Morgan Dennis began drawing its posters in 1932 and became the campaign's signature artist.

Federal recognition came late. American Humane started lobbying Congress in 1975, and in 1990 the 101st Congress passed a resolution marking the first full week of May. American Humane now calls Be Kind to Animals Week the oldest commemorative week in American history.

CHAPTER 04

And the month? No author at all

The month-long version has no such paper trail. No founder, no proclamation, and no first observance has ever been documented for a full "Be Kind to Animals Month." It is an informal stretching of the documented week across all of May, the way a single day's theme sometimes loosens into a whole season. The pedigree belongs to the week. The month simply borrows it.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love Be Kind to Animals Month

TEACHING

It was built to reach children first

From the start, the week aimed at the young, training children in how to treat animals. That focus on humane education, not just sentiment, is why it outlasted other observances of its era.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The ASPCA is founded

Henry Bergh establishes the ASPCA in New York City, the nation's first animal welfare organization.

A national humane body forms

American Humane is founded as the country's first national humane organization.

The week is resolved

At American Humane's annual meeting in Atlantic City, leaders adopt a resolution creating Humane Sunday and Be Kind to Animals Week.

The first observance

Be Kind to Animals Week is held nationally for the first time, May 16 to 22, the week after the Lusitania sinking.

A presidential proclamation

President Warren G. Harding issues an official proclamation recognizing the week.

Congress signs on

The 101st Congress passes a resolution recognizing the first full week of May as Be Kind to Animals Week.

BY THE NUMBERS

Be Kind to Animals Month by the Numbers

71%
US households owning a pet
5.8M
Dogs and cats entering US shelters, 2025
4.2M
US shelter animals adopted, 2025
1915
First Be Kind to Animals Week
Though it may seem to a good many people that a time when the world is hardly a kind world is not a time to emphasize kindness to animals, I believe there is great value in continuing to train children in the proper attitude toward their pets.
Eleanor RooseveltFirst Lady, in her 'My Day' column

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate Be Kind to Animals Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Volunteer at a local shelter

Spend an afternoon walking dogs, socializing cats, or photographing animals waiting for homes. Shelters run short on hands, and that is where kindness lands hardest in May.

FOSTER

Foster an animal for the month

Take a shelter pet into your home temporarily. A foster opens a kennel for another animal and gives yours a calmer place to wait for adoption.

BOOK

Book the overdue vet visit

Use the month as the nudge for the checkup, dental cleaning, or vaccine you keep postponing. Attention to an animal's health is kindness made practical.

TEACH

Teach a child to read an animal

Show a kid the lip-licks, flattened ears, or tucked tails that mean a dog or cat is uneasy. The whole observance began as humane education for the young.

SUPPORT

Support a humane organization

Donate to or fundraise for a local rescue, the ASPCA, or American Humane during May. A small gift keeps the kennels stocked and the clinics open.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Be Kind to Animals?

1 / 8

Which organization runs the original Be Kind to Animals Week?

Answer

Both labels circulate. The documented observance is Be Kind to Animals Week, run by American Humane during the first full week of May. The month-long framing extends that same theme across all of May.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

5sources
4primary records
3independently dated
Primary records
American Humane2020
Kindness 100+: Commemorating a Century of Be Kind to Animals Week, 1915-2020
Primary year-by-year history of the week: the October 1914 founding resolution in Atlantic City, the May 1915 first observance after the Lusitania, American Humane's 1877 founding, the 1922 Harding proclamation, Morgan Dennis's 1932 posters, the 1990 Congressional recognition, and the Eleanor Roosevelt 'My Day' quote.
View source
American Humane
Be Kind to Animals Week
American Humane's own page describing the week as founded in 1915, observed the first full week of May, and the longest-running commemorative week in U.S. history.
View source
ASPCA
History of the ASPCA
Documents the 1866 founding of the ASPCA by Henry Bergh in New York City as the nation's first animal welfare organization.
View source
ASPCA2025
U.S. Animal Shelter Statistics
Reports that roughly 5.8 million dogs and cats entered U.S. shelters and rescues in 2025 and about 4.2 million were adopted, drawing on Shelter Animals Count data.
View source
Additional coverage
Insurance Information Institute2024
Facts + Statistics: Pet Ownership and Insurance
States that about 71 percent of U.S. households, roughly 94 million families, own a pet, attributed to the American Pet Products Association's 2024-2025 National Pet Owners Survey.
View source
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