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"Cruelty to Brute Animals Condemned," London Magazine

From the Westminster Journal, July 2.

Mr. Touchit,

THO' I hope we have the permission of the Almighty to kill his good creatures for our sustenance, yet I cannot but believe, that the kind, the merciful and good Being, who created them, expects us to use them tenderly, and when, thro' necessity, we kill them, to take away their lives in the most merciful manner.

Now, I am afraid, our practice is the direct contrary. Our delicacy and luxury are grown to such a height, that there are perhaps as many devices made use of us amongst the creatures when living, as when dead, in order to suit them to our most fantastical appetites ; and some of these are of a most barbarous nature ; such as cutting off part or parts of the creature, and consequently drawing away its blood and life by drops, and killing it by slow degrees of torture.

And the poor young and most innocent creatures always share this cruelty to a large degree ; witness our calves, and also, our lambs, those beautiful emblems of innocence, whose name we have borrowed to represent to ourselves an idea of the most holy Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and Redeemer of mankind. In London, the capital of a nation professing Christianity, it is no uncommon thing to see those creatures bound and bleeding, and dying a lingering and cruel death ; a death, as I have thought, in some measure, resembling the barbarity of a crucifixion. This is almost any day to be seen about the bloody markets of this fountain-head and metropolis of profusion and luxury ; while the actors in these cruel tragedies, a large herd of creatures in the shape of men, seem void of all sense of humanity. So is luxury, and white meat so much in fashion, that I am afraid we have many persons amongst us, that would put a poor dumb creature to the greatest degree of torture, in order to suit its flesh the more to the delicate taste of the market, if there were but the least probability of selling it for only a farthing a joint the more.

I have mentioned luxury in the consumer, and covetousness in the vender, as reasons of our cruelty : And to these, I am afraid, I may justly add another reason (if it be not included under them) I mean, wantonness. We have men, as they are call'd, who are brutish enough to be cruel to poor creatures for sport. We have wanton, high-fed, pamper'd men-cooks, who can entertain themselves with boiling and roasting sensible creatures alive : And we have butchers also, who have by habit so metamorphos'd

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their nature, as to be capable of finding diversion in cruelty and barbarity. To these I join those who kill only fowls, which they also, for the abovemention'd, have a way of doing in a very lingering and cruel manner, without any visible regard to the misery of the poor innocent and defenceless creatures.

Our heavenly Father, whose mercy endureth for ever, hath in several places of holy writ expressly declared the greatest regard and compassion to the beasts of the field ; and hath commanded us to let them share equally with us in the rest of the Sabbath : But to our other cruelty we in a great degree add a denial of this benefit and mercy. This is true, especially, in respect to those noble creatures the horses, which are, doubtless, a most valuable part of our cattle.

I am here an advocate, Mr. Touchit for a prodigious multitude of poor creatures not able to speak for themselves : And as they are a sensible part of the animal creation of a merciful and righteous God, we have, I think, much reason to fear, that their cries and groans will be heard by their kind Creator ; and that they will, without the power of Speech, curse us in effect, and bring down the judgment of heaven upon us, if we continue to them our luxurious, weak, wanton, and most unreasonable cruelty and barbarity.