Library of Animal Rights History » Animal Welfare-Animal Rights Activists-Advocates-Quotes Against Cruelty to Animals

Thomas Young

1772-1835

1798 | Thomas Young, An Essay on Humanity to Animals (London, 1798); Online at Animal Rights History, 2003.

An Essay on Humanity to Animals

General Essay on Humanity to Animals

Animals are endued with a capability of perceiving pleasure and pain; and, from the abundant provision which we perceive in the world for the gratification of their several senses, we must conclude that the Creator wills the happiness of these his creatures, and consequently that humanity towards them is agreeable to him, and cruelty the contrary. This, I take it, is the foundation of the Rights of Animals, as far as they can be traced independently of scripture; and is, even by itself, decisive on the subject, being the same sort of argument as that on which Moralists found the Rights of Mankind, as deduced from the Light of Nature.

On Cruelty to Animals, in Sports Peculiar to Children

A child makes his first essays of cruelty upon the weakest and most defenceless parts of the animal creation: from thence he proceeds, as his strength and powers of cruelty increase, to attack the stronger and more formidable: last of all, after having been thus trained in a regular exercise of savageness, he falls upon his own species. When the Boy has been accustomed to contemplate with pleasure the cries and writhings of tortured animals, what better can be expected of the Man, than that he should feel an enjoyment in the sufferings of human beings? Cruelty, like all other vices, is progressive and ingenious; it calls continually for stronger gratifications, and is driven upon refined methods of satisfying its cravings.

On Cruelty to Animals, in Sports Common to Men and Boys

Bull-baiting, Cock-fighting, and Throwing at Cocks; all of which the less need be said, as so little can be brought forward in their defence. It may be safely affirmed of all of them, that they are the sources of much useless and unnecessary pain to animals, and therefore we should want no other reason for condemning them.

On Hunting, Shooting, and Fishing, for Sport

If then a grant from God was requisite, in order to our having the right to kill animals for food, how much more must such a grant be requisite in order to our having a right to kill them for sport ? We may be allowed therefore, to enquire of all who hunt, shoot, or fish, for sport, upon what scriptural grant they found their right to take away the lives of animals in the course of those diversions: and since it is impossible for them to produce any such grant, we are warranted in pronouncing hunting, shooting, and fishing for sport, to be unlawful, cruel, and sinful.

On Cruelty to Horses

There have been instances in this country, within these few years, of men being brought to trial for [cruelty to] horses. Although the evidence was clear and decisive as to the facts, the Jury were induced to pronounce a verdict of Not Guilty; because it appeared, that however savage and inhuman the conduct of the prisoners had been, unless it could be proved to have proceeded from motives of malice and personal revenge against the owners of the horses, they could not legally be found guilty under the statutes on which they had been indicted. In such cases surely the law labours under some imperfection, which may deserve the notice of those who are able to apply a remedy.

On Cruelty to Animals, with Respect to the Article of Eating

Is it not enough that you deprive animals of their lives, which ye believe the whole of their existence; is it not enough that ye separate for ever the young from the dam, and the dam from the young; that ye cut them off from all their little pleasures and satisfaction; but must ye torture them also ? and that for so low and unworthy an end as the gratification of an appetite which ye have in common with the meanest of creatures ? The fiercest and cruellest beasts and birds of prey, the lion, the wolf, and the eagle, only kill the animals which they seize upon for their food; they do not wantonly torture them: that was left for the invention of man, who, through the prevalence of his reason, rises infinitely above the highest and best qualities of the irrational creatures; and, through the perversion of it, sinks very far below the lowest and worst.

A man of humane disposition will not easily taste of a dish, in which cruelty has been mingled. It is true, he did not inflict the torture, his feelings would not have permitted him; but it was perhaps inflicted on his account, or if not, he ought to at least shew his disapprobation of the cruel art, by strictly abstaining from the meats it has infected.

Most men, I suppose, esteem it a duty which they owe to God, to beg his blessing upon the food of which, through his bounty, they are about to partake. But how absurdly impious is it to beg his blessing upon a table which is furnished out in part by the abuse of his bounty, and the torture of his creatures! For my own part, I could not join in such a grace, and, far from expecting a blessing, should be more apt to dread a curse, upon such a table.

Of Killing Bees, in Order to Take Their Honey

Whenever we taste the fruits of the labours of these insects, we ought to reflect how much toil every drop of honey has cost, how much skill has been exerted in collecting it, how many fields were traversed, and how many flowers visited, in order to procure it; and, above all, until a change for the better take place, we ought to reflect how many lives have been taken in order to come at it. As things are at present, it is somewhat remarkable, and very afflicting to a feeling mind, that we cannot have our dishes sweetened, unless at the expense of thousands of lives, either of these wonderful animals, or, dreadful to think, of our fellow-creatures.

Miscellaneous Cruelties to Animals

Shall not man recollect, that a day is approaching, in which he must answer for every abuse of that delegated dominion which he holds over inferior natures?

What right do we have to tame such animals as birds, squirrels, and hares, and to cage and confine some of them ; thus debarring them from the unrestrained exertion of the several energies of their natures, and depriving them of many enjoyments which a benevolent Creator had provided for them, and all this merely for the sake of amusement? I do not think that the grant by which God gave unto Adam "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth," can be made by a fair interpretation to confer such a right; and therefore I conclude that we have it not at all.

To Those Who Have Made Some Progress in Humanity

A man who has made a tolerable progress in humanity, will adopt, and ever bear in mind, the principle of increasing, as far as lies within his power, the quantity of pleasure in the world, and diminishing that of pain:…he will not overlook one created thing that is endued with faculties capable of perceiving pleasure and pain :…he will not esteem the meanest of animals beneath the notice of his humanity:…he will feel for every thing that is capable of feeling: he will look upon pity and kindness and mercy towards his own species as the weightier matters of humanity, but at the same time he will consider the humane treatment of animals as more than the tythe of the anise and cummin of it; he will scrupulously do his duty in the former, and in the latter he will not leave it undone.

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1798-Apr | Monthly Review, review of "An Essay on Humanity to Animals, By Thomas Young," Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal 25 (1798-Apr): 467-8.

1816 | "Several valuable works have been published on the subject: amongst which must be mentioned Mr. Young's Essay on Humanity to Animals." (Rev. James Plumptre, Three Discourses on the Case of The Animal Creation, and The Duties of Man to Them (London, 1816); Online at Google Books and Critical Review, review of "Three Discourses on the Ease of the Animal Creation, and the Duties of Man to Them, By the Rev. James Plumptre (London, 1816)," Critical Reviewe 4 (1816-Jul): 99-100.

1892 | [Thomas Young] bases his plea for animals' rights on the light of nature.…The book opens with a general essay on humanity and cruelty, and contains chapters on sport, the treatment of horses, cruelties connected with the table, etc., etc. It is quoted approvingly by Thomas Forster and later advocates of humanity. (Henry Salt, "review of "Humanity to Animals, by Thomas Young" in the Bibliographical Appendix of Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress [1892]).