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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1837-1901] Victorian » Animal Rights Quotes » Francis William Newman

Animal Rights Quotes » Francis William Newman

References to "Rights" of Animals in Historical Literature

It is easy to quote from the Hebrew Scriptures texts which recommend the kind treatment of animals. They are not numerous, but they are decisive. In the Christian books nothing very definite may be found, yet inferentially the duty of gentleness and mercy to animals is contained beyond a doubt in numerous precepts and principles. Notwithstanding this, it is an undeniable fact that the oriental sarcasm which calls Christendom the "Hell of Animals" has a grievous basis of truth. Cruelties are perpetrated on the greatest scale, incessantly and through ages, and no remonstrance arises from any of the churches, as such, though now and then the indignation of individuals swells into an outcry, and some little alleviation follows. But even so, no principles of action are firmly laid down. Cruelty to a living creature is deprecated,—when gratuitous,—but no one utters the maxim that: "living creatures have some rights," much less tries to define what rights. It has long appeared to me that this is among the moral defects of historical Christianity, which a rightly developed Theism ought to correct. (502)