Enlightenment Law Against Cruelty

Animal Rights History Timeline: Enlightenment [1660-1785]

Restoration [1660-1689]
Augustan-Age of Pope [1689-1745]
Age of Sensibility [1745-1785]

Thomas Wentworth's Act of 1635 in Ireland, as well as Nathaniel Ward's contribution to the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 establishes English and American law against cruelty to animals almost 200 years prior to the passage of Richard Martin's Act of 1822, a Bill to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle. Since these contributions were largely unknown until the late 20th century, the modern era of anti-cruelty legislation is usually traced back to the precedence set by "Martin's Act" and the amendments and legislative enactments against cruelty to animals that followed. However, it is King Ashoka, in the 3rd century BCE that we must honour as being the first to decree law not only for the protection of animals, creating the first list of "protected species but, progressive even by today's standards, proclaiming the slaughter of animals as food or for sacrifice unlawful."¹

The Bookworm, Carl Spitzweg

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