The English Glutton, Darly M 1776So widely popular was this soup since the time of colonization that by the beginning of the 19th century sea turtle populations around the Caribbean Islands were rapidly declining. Entire ecosystems where the turtles bred and where the females laid their eggs were wiped out so that schooners needed to travel further and further away — sometimes as far as Nicaragua— to obtain shiploads of them. No turtle was in greater demand than the green sea turtle, so named because its broth took on a greenish tint. Recipes called for simmering the meat in cream, butter, and sherry. At frenzied feasts called “turtle frolics,” the soup was often served in the animal’s huge upturned shell with ample amounts of rum punch to wash it down.
Henry Bergh, a tall, gaunt gentleman of the upper class and founder of the newly formed American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), always said that it wasn’t the eating of turtle soup that he objected to, but the way in which the turtles suffered. As these 100 awaited their destiny to be carted to market and then sold to the best restaurants and saloons in New York City, Bergh and seven ASPCA law enforcement agents requested permission to come aboard.
Insatiable
Turning up the Heat on the History of Turtle Soup
BY TRACY BASILEFEBRUARY 17, 2025It was the age of gluttony, when just the act of eating turtle soup was a statement of social superiority, feeding the voracious appetite for status on both sides of the Atlantic. A schooner had just docked at New York Harbor. Upon its deck, flailing for freedom, exhausted and dehydrated, more than 100 green sea turtles — each measuring 3 to 4 feet long and weighing an average of 350 pounds — were turned upside down on their backs, secured with ropes threaded through open wounds on their flippers to keep them tightly bound. The year was 1866 and ships like this one sailed into New York Harbor every day loaded with goods from all over the world. What happened next is a little-known story about the power of tears upon the human imagination. A message as urgent then as it is now for a society enamored by wealth and drawn to over-indulgence.
Bringing home turtles on board H.M.S "Jumna" by Charles Dollman, 1879They witnessed turtles already dead, others dying, their wounds still raw. The turtles had received no food or water since their capture weeks before and in this unnatural, upside-down state they appeared to Bergh to be in misery. Utilizing his authority for the first time under New York State’s new anti-cruelty law, Bergh raised his ASPCA badge to Captain Calhoun and announced that he and his crew were under arrest.
It’s no surprise that newspaper coverage of the captain’s trial made Bergh the laughing stock of the city. Soon cartoons and editorials mocked his judgement, increasing corner newsstand sales not just in New York but in cities across the country. The celebrated turtle case had struck a nerve in the public’s conscience and spurred debate.
Why did turtle soup become such a symbol of luxury to the rich and powerful? Who profited? Did the turtles suffer? And why did Bergh want so badly to help them?
Bergh, President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1867 Granger CollectionDuring the court case, the defense claimed that a turtle wasn’t even an animal. Possibly it was a fish, or a crab-like creature. Drawing on the brand new science of comparative anatomy, Bergh set the record straight by explaining that turtles were, indeed, animals, part of the reptile family called Testudines. But his words fell on deaf ears.
The defense continued, claiming that the anti-cruelty law that Bergh enacted was not intended for “lower” species. Most of the United States agreed. Throughout much of the 19th century, Western thought regarded animals to be like machines, lacking the mental and physical capacity to feel pain, think, and have emotions. Even though they have hearts that beat and blood that courses through their veins, they were regarded as soulless organisms reacting to stimuli. The notion that all life in the universe is ordered within a system of ranking from high to low (called the Great Chain of Being) is a false narrative that still persists today.
Natasha Nowick, president and co-founder of Turtle Rescue League in Massachusetts, takes seriously her role in educating people about turtle sentience and behavior. She has been rescuing and rehabilitating injured and sick turtles for more than a decade and has helped thousands of them, of many species, recover from getting struck by cars and trucks, bitten by dogs, or exposed to toxic chemicals. “You don’t have to have ESP to feel your heart respond to the trauma they’re going through,” she says. “If they’ve been biting the ground, you’ll find dirt in their mouth. If they have a broken limb, they will hold it close and gasp with their mouth open and eyes tightly shut. They might not have vocal chords or facial muscles like us, but they can make their version of what you’d imagine someone calling out in pain. It’s a sharp intake and then an exhalation — a hiss, if you will. They have cortisol levels that shoot through the roof. All turtles telegraph their pain like any other animal.”
Henry Bergh wanted the trial to open people’s hearts and bravely asked the jury to consider the plight of these feeling creatures. But he could not convince them that turtle pain mattered. He lost the case, his first setback of many, and the soup industry continued full steam ahead for several more decades until its inevitable collapse. Was Bergh misguided to think that those who enjoyed this lavish dish would also be willing to give a darn about the turtles themselves? Was it just a leap too far?
Turtles have minds very different from our own. “What is in their minds will never disappear,” says Nowick. There is a sense of awe in her voice as she describes “the collective unconscious of 200 million years of turtle instinct” being infinitely sharper than anything a turtle could learn. “They come out of the egg with the knowledge they will need to dig their own nests when they become adults. They are born knowing how to sniff out water for their first home. In a very real way it is like having the minds of the last million generations whispering over your shoulder into your ear for your benefit. And that is outstanding. So when I speak of wisdom I am talking about an animal that, without ever being taught, knows more about the world, is more in equilibrium, in harmony with its surroundings, than any mammal will inherently know.”
Bergh’s concern for animals aligned with other notable 19th-century naturalists, especially Charles Darwin, who challenged the public’s long-held beliefs in his 1872 book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. But years earlier in 1859 in his groundbreaking classic, On the Origin of Species, Darwin claimed an even more radical idea — that species change through natural selection. Over time sea turtles developed the adaptive trait that reduces salt concentrations that build up in their bodies from living in ocean water. Though Darwin outlined the framework of natural selection, he didn’t know how sea turtles performed this task. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that scientists figured it out: large tear glands set behind each eye excrete tears down their faces to rid their bodies of excess salt.
Tears might have made the difference on that day in 1866, when Henry Bergh witnessed these cold-water giants in their most vulnerable position—splayed out on their backs, dehydrated and weak. Their suffering was palpable, and as he looked closer at their faces, into their eyes, he thought he saw them cry.
What began as a mistake became a movement. Over the next three decades organizations devoted to alleviating the suffering of animals opened in cities throughout Turtle Island.
Pennsylvania SPCA, 1867
Oregon Humane Society, 1868
Massachusetts SPCA, 1868
San Francisco SPCA, 1868
Canadian SPCA in Montreal, 1869
Quebec SPCA, 1870
Rhode Island SPCA, 1870
Ottawa SPCA, 1871
Toronto SPCA, 1873
Ontario SPCA, 1873
Atlanta Humane Society, 1873
South Carolina SPCA, 1874
Los Angeles SPCA, 1877
Wisconsin Humane Society, 1879
Winnipeg SPCA, 1894
British Columbia SPCA, 1896
and beyond.
Notes:
Many of the facts of this story can be found in the excellent biography, A Traitor to his Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement, by Ernest Freeburg
Why Turtle Soup Disappeared, a YouTube video hosted by Phil Edwards
Interview with Natasha Nowick of Turtle Rescue League, February 4, 2023