Animal Rights Quotes • Law • Humane Education • Historical Literature eBook Library: Free Full-Text eBooks • Primary Sources
Activists Against Cruelty to Animals: A » B » C » D » E » F » G » H » I » J » K » L » M » N » O » P » Q » R » S » T » U » V » W » X » Y » Z

Animal Rights History Timeline » [1837-1901] Victorian Age » Paul Ansel Chadbourne

Paul Ansel Chadbourne

Instinct: in the Animal Kingdom, and Higher Powers in Man

Higher Character of Animals Compared With Man

[1872] Paul Ansel Chadbourne, "Higher Character of Animals—Animals Compared With Man," lecture VII in Instinct: Its Office in the Animal Kingdom, and Its Relation to the Higher Powers in Man (New York, 1872; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

From this capacity of animals for suffering and enjoyment, we infer that they have rights, though this is denied, on technical ground, as their power of thinking has been denied.

Animals have the right to get all the good out of life they can, in subordination to the higher beings placed over them. It is said animals have no conception of such rights, and therefore cannot have them. That they have no such conception remains to be proved; but in the mean time, we appeal to the sense of kindness implanted in their masters, till that is blunted by brutality, or a philosophy that has little to recommend it.

An invasion of their right to enjoyment, the instinctively repel. And the natural feelings of men, cry out against any wanton infliction of pain upon dumb animals. Those who torment them, are always cruel to men. The laws justly protect them against cruel masters; and in these laws, the community recognizes the rights of animals. (209)