Back in New York, Mary Ellen, a 10-year-old abused and neglected child, was carried by Bergh into the courtroom wrapped in a horse blanket. The child displayed a mass of scars from repeated beatings and mutilations and was severely malnourished. However, according to the laws of the day, she was completely at the mercy of her mother. Bergh asked that the child be treated like a “dumb animal” and placed into the hands of the ASPCA as animals were now protected from this kind of abuse. The unprecedented verdict states that Mary Ellen would be committed to “the Sheltering Arms” of the ASPCA. Her mother was sentenced to prison for one year.
