Humanity Against Cruelty to Animals in Historical Literature, Timeline of Animal Rights History

Animal Rights History »»Thomas Percival

1775 | A Fathers Instructions

Moral Tales: Taking of Birds-Nests

"A BOY, who was a great destroyer of nests, had carefully preserved one, that he might enjoy the cruel pleasure of confining in a cage the poor birds, who had the same natural right to liberty with himself. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "Moral Tales: Taking of Birds-Nests")

Moral Tales: Cruelty in Experiments

Beware, my son ! said Euphronius, of observing spectacles of pain and misery with delight. Cruelty, by insensible degrees, will steal into you heart; and every generous principle of your nature will then be subverted. The Philosopher, who has in contemplation the establishment of some important truth; or the discovery of what will tend to the advancement of real science, and to the good and happiness of mankind; may perhaps be justified, if he sacrifice to his pursuits the life or enjoyment of an inferior animal. But the emotions of humanity should never be stifled in his breast; his trials should be made with tenderness, repeated with reluctance and carried no farther than the object in view unavoidably requires. Wanton experiments on living creatures, and even those which are merely subservient to the gratification of curiousity, merit the severest censure. They degrade the man of letters into a brute. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "Moral Tales: Cruelty in Experiments")

Moral Tales: The Dog

The beauty of his shape, his strength, agility, swifness, courage, generousity, fidelity, and gratitude, command our attachment, and give him the justest claim to our care and protection. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "Moral Tales: The Dog" )

Moral Tales: The Canary Bird and Red Linnet

I feel the loss of liberty; and as I hop from one side of my prison to another, I often expand my wings, conscious of powers which I am restrained from exercising. Nor am I indifferent to those social pleasures, of which though sometimes a witness, I am never a partaker. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "Moral Tales: The Canary Bird and Red Linnet")

The Ass

To his sons, as they walked along, he explained and enforced the indispensible obligation we are under, to provide sufficient supplies of food for every creature, that is dependent on us: And he quoted the divine command, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, when he treadeth out of the corn, as extending to all the animals, which are subservient to our benefit. Interest indeeed, with respect to many of them, hath constrained us to pay some attention to this duty: But the poor ass seems to be regarded as an outcast of nature; and after a day of toil and drudgery, he is turned into the lanes, during the hours which should be devoted to sleep, to collect a scanty and precarious meal, which serves rather to excite, than to satisfy the cravings of his appetite. His tameness, humility, and patience, instead of raising pity and regard, have exposed him to contempt, to insult, and oppression. We despise his services, because they are pruchased cheaply; we overload him with our burdens, because he is passive under them; we scourge him with capricious severity, because he submits to the rod; and we deny him proper sustenance, because he is tolerant of hunger, and contented with the weeds, other animals reject. Yet is the ass, in that state of freedom for which nature formed him, active, fierce, and impetuous. In the deserts of Lybia and Numidia, when pursued by the hunter, he runs with amazing swifness;…If attacked, he defends himself with courage and intrepidity; But at the moment he is overpowered his spirit becomes depressed; his ferocity deserts him; and he soom contracts the dullness and stupidity, which characterixe his species, in all those countries where he is reduced to servitude. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "The Ass" )

Cruelty to Horses

Now his state of servitude and misery commenced. To render him more tame and passive, a painful operation was performed upon him, by which the size and firmness of his muscles were impaired, his spirit was depressed, and he lost, with the distinction of his sex, one essential power of usefulness and enjoyment. Nature had furnished him with a flowing tail, which was at once an ornament, a covering for what should be concealed, and a weapon of defence against the flies of summer. But false taste decreed the extirpation of it; and several joints were taken off by a coarse instrument and blundering farrier. The blood gushed from the wound; and to stop the discharge, the tender part was seared with a red hot iron. At this instant of time I happened by; and whilst I was pierced to the heart with the sufferings of the horse, I saw the savage who inflicted them, suspend his operation, to curse and beat him for the groans he uttered. (Percival Thomas, A Father's Instructions [1775], "Cruelty to Horses")

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1775 | Thomas Percival, A Father's Instructions; Consisting of Moral Tales, Fables, and Reflections; Designed to Promote the Love of Virture, A Taste for Knowledge, and an Early Aquaintance with the Works of Nature [1st ed. London, 1775] (London, 1781; Digitized by Google, 2007).

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