As a founding member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, later the RSPCA, he served in key roles but resigned in 1833 due to his outspoken views and religious exclusion.

Lewis Gompertz was born into a large and wealthy Jewish family of diamond merchants in London.

[3] Being Jewish, Gompertz and his siblings were barred from attending university, instead receiving an informal education that fostered critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

A committed vegan, he abstained from consuming animal products, including milk and eggs, and refused to ride in coaches due to the exploitation of horses.

It matters not whether the victim be furnished with two legs or with four, with wings, with fins, or with arms; where there is sensation, there is subject for cruelty, and in proportion to the degree of sensation will its action operate.Gompertz was a founding member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), later known as the RSPCA, attending its inaugural meeting in 1824.

Gompertz's involvement in disputes with the rival Association for the Promotion of Rational Humanity to the Animal Creation and accusations of promoting Pythagorean and anti-Christian views led to his resignation in 1833 after the SPCA reformed its committee to base its principles exclusively on Christianity, effectively excluding Gompertz as a Jew.

[2] Following his resignation, Gompertz, along with T. Forster, founded the Animals' Friend Society, which he managed with his wife Ann until 1846.

His notable inventions included an expanding chuck, substitutes for cog wheels, and a modified velocipede designed to avoid animal use.