Hey, stick around after the episode because we want to talk about this wild tale.

Those TV commercials, the dog shivering in the cold, gazing at the camera through rusted chain link fencing,

the look of defeated, hopeless resignation in their eyes.

Since April 1866, the ASPCA has been fighting a seemingly endless battle to rescue

animals from cruelty, to save them from the unspeakable.

Now, here's some uncomfortable news.

It took us a bit longer to do the same thing for children in this country.

And we were very nearly too late for a dozen boys who were starved, beaten, and brutalized by their bishop in a church seminary in one of America's greatest cities.

Oops.

But better late than never, right?

And they got a small beam of light against America.

Oh, real, right.

No, no, no, no. Weird. Weird. Stuff.

In May, 1891, a letter arrived at the office of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in San Francisco.

It was written by an attorney on behalf of his client, a former priest.

The letter read, having had the occasion today to visit the houses of Vladimir, the bishop of the

Russo-Greek Church, 1713 Powell Street, who is about to depart for Alaska, I discovered about

a dozen boys from six to 14 years of age who, one and all complained to me that they were

confined there without sufficient food and whose physical

appearance bore ample testimony to the fact that they were strangers to soap and water and decent

or sufficient clothing. Some of the boys appealed to me to release them from their captivity,

and I promised them I would do something for them.

...