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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » Elizabeth Kent

Elizabeth Kent

To Great Humanity to Animals

Magazine of Natural History

[1828-Dec] E. [Elizabeth] Kent, "Retrospective Criticism: To Great Humanity to Animals," Magazine of Natural History 1 (1828-Dec): 407-8; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

Whatever may be our theories on such subjects, whatever the analogies, or arguments upon which we found them, it is dangerous to act upon opinions that we cannot prove; and surely it is better even to run into a little excess on the humane side of the question, than to run the risk of inflicting unnecessary pain. I agree with the writer that "she who can read the account of a cool and deliberate bloodshed of some hundreds of fellow-creatures, and call the perpetrator a hero," yet calls him a brute, and a monster, who, for useful purposes, "kills a few insects" is merely squeamish; and perhaps a little affected; but let us hope that women will ever preserve that "fastidiousness," if fastidiousness it be, which shrinks from inflicting pain on any living creature. If an animal must suffer death, let it be given without torture; and, above all, let us not make the sufferings of any creature, however low its rank in the creation, a source of heartless sport.