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

Thomas Forster

1789-1860

1839 | Thomas Forster, Philozoia, or Moral Reflections on the Actual Condition of the Animal Kingdom, and on the Means of Improving the Same; with Numerous Anecdotes and Illustrative Notes, Addressed to Lewis Gompertz, Esq., President of the Animal Friend Society (Brussels, 1839) Online at Google Books.

Philozoia, Or Moral Reflections on the Actual Condition of the Animal Kingdom, and on the Means of Improving the Same

Of the Education of Children in General and of Early Education in Particular Considered with Reference to their own Happiness as well as to the Condition of Animals

One of the surest means of bettering the conditions of animals will be to improve the character of man, by giving to children a humane rational education, and, about all, setting before them examples of kindness. Hitherto nothing has been so much neglected as this duty, and the evil effects of this neglect have been generally visible in the character of the people. At present it is better understood; but a great deal remains to be done, and as the education of children will not be thoroughly reformed till their instructors are first set to rights, I should propose to your society to procure the delivery of lectures on the subject at the various mechanics' institutes in England.

Of Field Sports and other Pastimes

Cardinal Bellarmina, one of the greatest ornaments of the Church and one of the best men, maintained the criminality of field sports, on the ground that we have no right to make the destruction of animal life a source of amusement; he would never disturb any kind of insects at their work, saying that God had given them the means of enjoyment, and had not right to take away this natural right. You will do well to reflect on this, and to enquire whether the just suppression of bullbaiting, cockfighting, and other such vulgar and vicious pastimes, would not, as the age becomes more and more civilized, be followed by the abolition of foxhunting and all sporting not immediately directed to the object of obtaining game for food, by the most easy and expeditious means.

Of Cruelty in Surgical Experiments

As no plea of necessity can be set up in defence of cruel experiments made on the persons of living beings, since no countervailing good has ever resulted from them; so they ought to be condemned by every humane person ; and those surgeons who are known to have been guilty thereof, should never be entrusted with the care of families; as it has been demonstrated by too many lamentable proofs in hospitals and elsewhere that those who are cruel to brutes will also be cruel to human beings whenever they have sufficient temptation; and therefore the public have nothing to rely on but the habits of humanity which may belong to the physician, as a guarantee against his making the poor inmates of an hospital the subjects of unwarrantable experiments, should he be tempted so to do by curiosity.

Of the Cruelty Connected with the Culinary Art

Some persons in Europe carry their notions about cruelty to animals so far as not to allow themselves to eat animal food. Many very intelligent men have, at different times of their lives, abstained wholly from flesh; and this, too, with very considerable advantage to their health.…All these facts, taken collectively, point to a period in the progress of civilization when men will cease to slay their fellow-mortals in the animal world for food.…The return of this paradisical state may be rather remote; but in the meantime we ought to make the experiment, and set an example of humanity by abstaining, if not from all, at least from those articles of cookery with which any particular cruelty may be connected, such as veal, when the calves are killed in the ordinary way.

Observations on Animals, Considered as Our Fellow Creatures and as Having with us the Common Lot of Mortality and Probable Future Life

Good sense as well as kind feeling, in these days of reflection and humanity, at length compel us to regard animals as our fellow creatures, and as possessing, like ourselves, their just rights which we cannot infringe upon without subjecting ourselves to the retribution of offended justice. (Thomas Forster, Philozoia, or Moral Reflections, "Animals Considered as Our Fellow Creatures)

1892| Henry Salt, review of "Philozoia, Or Moral Reflections on the Actual Condition of the Animal Kingdom, and on the Means of Improving the Same by T. Forster," in the Bibliographical Appendix of Animals' Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress [First Edition: London & New York, 1892] (London & New York, 1894); Online at Animal Rights History, 2003.