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Animal Rights LAW - Antiquity

Ancient Laws for the Protection of Animals

Law-Victorian Age « Law-Antiquity » Law-Middle Ages

The mythical figure of Triptolemus, "the most ancient of the Athenian legislators…established laws for the Athenians…Honour your parents; Sacrifice to the Gods from the fruits of the earth; Injure not animals.

Ancient Athens | The Areopagites [members of Aeopagus Supreme Court of Ancient Athens], condemned a boy to death for picking out the eyes of quails.

621 BCE | Mentioned as a law of Draco: "Let this be an eternal sacred law to the inhabitants of Attica…that the Gods, and indigenous Heroes, be worshipped…according to the ability of each individual, in conjunction with auspicious words, the firstlings of fruits, and annual cakes. So that this law ordains, that divinity should be venerated by the first offerings of fruits which are used by men, and cakes made of the fine flour of wheat.

274-232 BCE | "Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 1) proclaims Asoka, as emperor of India who "became a Buddhist and a vegetarian and, in accordance with the doctrine of 'ahimsa' (nonviolence), suppressed the royal hunts and ordered the curtailment of the slaughter of animals throughout his empire" (Ryder, 21). He "made provision for medical treatment…and had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 2 ). His edicts promoted "kindness to living beings" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 11) and "not killing living beings" (Minor Rock Edicts, 2) and in stating that "animals were to be protected"(The Seven Pillar Edicts, 7) provides us with perhaps "the earliest known list of protected species" (Guruge, "Emperor Asoka's Place in History," 202 ). Asoka's edicts "were recorded on on a large stone pillars and rocks found scattered in more than thirty places throughout India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan" (The Edicts of Asoka).