Beautiful Joe

Beautiful Joe is a story about a mongrel dog named Joe. It was written by Margaret Marshall Saunders under the name Marshall Saunders, and published in 1893. It won a Humane Society competition. The book was a bestseller and directed public interest to animal cruelty. Joe was a real dog, brutally abused by his owner. He was rescued and his story told as an autobiography. Saunders wrote a sequel called "Beautiful Joe's Paradise".
In 1934, Saunders was given Canada's highest civilian award at the time, Commander of the British Empire or C.B.E. In 1963, the official Beautiful Joe Park was named in Meaford, Ontario, next to the house where Beautiful Joe was rehabilitated. A Beautiful Joe Heritage Society was formed in 1994 to preserve Joe's legacy and establish a museum.