CHAPTER 477.
AN ACT to incorporate the Delaware Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met, (twothirds of each branch of the Legislature concurring therein,) That James Ponder, Edward Bringhurst, Peter N. Brennan, Samuel Hilles, Jesse Sharpe, John O'Byrne, Wilmer Atkinson, Charles B. Lore, James Bradford, William McCaulley, Caleb P. Johnson, David W. Maull, William Canby, Daniel Corbit, Jacob Moore, Benjamin Burton, Manlove Hayes, Washington Jones, Daniel W. Farra, R. Emmitt Robinson, Edward F. James, John P. McLear, John P. Wales, George W. Stone, William H. Pierce, Edwin A. VanTrump, Charles G. Rumford, Margaret II. Hilles, Elizabeth S. C. Isreal, Anne Simple, Elizabeth Canby, Sarah Bringhurst, Elizabeth W. Smith, Martha A. Jones, Gertrude W. Neilds, Martha J. Gause, Catharine A. Bradford, Maria L. Chandler, Caroline G. Tatnall, Mary Ann Adams, Fanny S. Garrett, Emma Lea Pusey, and such other persons as are now, or may hereafter be associated with them, shall be and' they are hereby created a body politic and corporate, by the name, style, and title of "The Delaware Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," and they and their successors are hereby ordained and declared: a body politic and corporate in fact and in law, and by the title aforesaid shall be able and capable, in law, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any courts of law or equity in, this State and elsewhere, in all manner of suits, complaints, pleas, causes, and demands whatsoever, with all the legal incidents of a corporation aggregate, including the right to use a common seal, the same at their pleasure to alter, and renew, to, receive legacies and donations, and to hold real estate not exceeding in value the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, and by the title aforesaid shall have continuance and for a term not exceeding twenty years from and after the passage of this act.
SECTION 2, The objects of this society are to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to, animals throughout the State of Delaware, and for the enforcement of all laws heretofore to or hereafter enacted for the 'protection of dumb animals; and to purchase, print, publish and circulate such tracts and books as are fitted to promote the objects of the society, and to appoint or employ such agents as the board of managers may from time to time deem necessary.
SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the corporators, whose names are mentioned in the first section of this act, or any ten of them, after notice published for five days in two newspapers printed in the city of Wilmington, to meet together and elect a president, fifty vice-presidents, a secretary, a treasurer, and twenty persons, who shall constitute a board of managers, in whom shall be vested the control and management of the affairs of the said corporation, and the board of managers may appoint such other officers as may be necessary for the transaction of the business of the society.
SECTION 4. In the month of January in every subsequent year an election for officers and managers of the said society shall be held in the city of Wilmington at such time and place and after such notice as the managers for the time being may deem proper, and the said managers and officers shall continue to act until their successors shall have been duly elected. At all such elections office every person who shall have been elected by the board of managers a member of the society, and who shall within one year have paid the annual dues as provided in the by-laws of this society, shall be entitled to give one vote.
SECTION 5. The said society, for fixing the terms of admission of its members, for the government of the same, for electing its officers and members, and for the general regulation and management of its affairs, shall have power to form a code of by-laws, not inconsistent with the laws of the State or of the United States, which code, when formed and adopted at a regular meeting shall, until modified or rescinded, be equally binding as this act upon the society, its officers and members.
SECTION 6. The sheriffs and constables of the several counties of this State, and the police force: of the city of Wilmington, as well as all other places in the State of Delaware where police organizations exist, shall, as occasion may require, assist the society, its members, or agents in the enforcement of all laws which are now or may hereafter be enacted for the protection or dumb animals.
SECTION 7. The principal office of the society shall be located in the city of Wilmington, with full power on the part of the society to establish and locate branches at any place or places within the boundaries of the State.
SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be deemed and taken to be a public act, and the same shall be published with the other public acts of this Legislature without the charge required in Section 3 of Chap. 1 of 13 Vol. of Del. Laws, and the power to revoke the same is hereby reserved to the Legislature.
Passed at Dover, February 20, 1873.