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

Animal Rights History »» John Todd Ferrier

1903 | On Behalf of the Creatures; A Plea Historical, Scientific, Economic, Dynamic, Humane and Religious

To proclaim the Brotherhood of Man, the essential one-ness of all religious aspirations, and the unity of all living creatures in the Divine. To teach the moral necessity for humaneness towards all men and all creatures:

To protest against, and to work for the abolition of all national and social customs which violate the teachings of the Christ, especially such as involve bloodshed, the oppression of the weak and defenceless, the perpetuation of the brutal mind, and the infliction of cruelty upon animals, viz.:—war, vivisection, the slaughter of animals for food, fashion and sport, and kindred evils:

To proclaim a message of peace and happiness, health and purity, spirituality and Divine Love. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903])

The Records of History

The finest intellects of the world…possessed a wisdom higher far than that which passes for wisdom in our present day civilisation. They had also the courage of their convictions, and showed it by applying them to life. Their humaneness was practical; their precepts became deeds. They were not simply against vivisection for scientific purposes, but the vivisection of a living creature for "food" was equally abhorrent. Their "league of pity" was full-rounded. It did not stop outside of the slaughter-house, but entered it, and sought to put an end to killing for food purposes. Their doctrine of a humane attitude to the lower races was not content to formulate "societies" for the protection of cruelty to animals, like so many of the inconsistent and soulless things that go by that name in these days, but it sought a most practical outlet in the habit of abstinence from all flesh-foods. And even where the Humanitarian motive did not prevail, men abstained from flesh for the sake of personal purity; for they recognised how impossible it was to attain the highest life and, at the same time, minister to the lower and grosser tastes, and appetites of the body. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Records of History")

The Testimony of Science

It is quite true we have not the great ravages we once had. The scourges of the East do not gain the footing they once did; but that is owing to our better knowledge of sanitation. Better dwellings, improved drainage, purer water, and a truer appreciation of fresh air have wrought wonders in driving back the ravaging diseases from our shores. Yet we have more sickness, more invalids, more consumptive patients, more sufferers from heart disease, a greater dread of the rapidly increasing fearful appendicitis, more cancer and more mental aberration and lunacy than ever the world witnessed, both in this country and America. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Testimony of Science")

Why is this? What can be the cause of it? Why cannot medical science instruct humanity and cope with the difficulty? Listen to the voice of Science—anatomists, chemists, and physicians of the highest repute for knowledge and skill—and science tells us that we are daily running great risks because we persist in eating flesh-foods, that our body is not formed to digest and assimilate flesh, that by eating flesh we multiply diseases, because we violate one of the fundamental laws of Nature. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Testimony of Science")

Doctors by the thousand cannot cure this; medical appliances are useless to stay the ravage; at best their pharmaceutics only relieve. What is the cause of this devastation? this incubus of suffering? this nightmare of horrors? Our manner of living! (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Testimony of Science")

Some Economic Problems

The true solution must be found in an entire change in the national habits, so that the conditions under which land is held may be such as to contribute to the wealth, the health, the intelligence, the moral fibre, and the happiness of the people. For, after all, the prosperity of the nation does not so much depend upon who holds the land, as it does upon the wise and sacred use to which it is put....We must not shut our eyes to the fact that the flesh-eating propensities of the nation have done much to nuture the very spirt which we wish now to uproot.…That the land problem is a very old one, and that it has engaged the attention of some of the greatest moral an political philosophers, may be gathered from the best literature. There could be no heavier indictment of our own nation written today; and is little short of a phophecy whose fulfiment will be assured unless our national habits change, and we cultivate the land to feed men rather than graze cattle for food. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "Some Economic Problems")

The Dynamics of Natural Food

The dynamic value of pure diet for the body has been demonstrated, is indeed daily demonstrated, by the highest and greatest Thinkers, Reformers, Scientists, Athletes, and Moral Philosophers, and by whole peoples who abjure flesh-meats. The economic gain to the individual is great. There is better health, happier physical conditions, less physic and more joy, less material waste and more energy, less bulk but more endurance. The land flourishes when man is Nature's tiller once more. The fruit trees bloom, and the horrors of slaughter-houses are unknown, when man returns to his own true state and is King and Patriarch in the world. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Dynamic of Natural Food")

A Plea for Humaneness

Since the mystic records of the past enforce our argument; and since history has testified to the wisdom of our plea; and since science has sounded the warning note against flesh-eating, and advised frugivorous habits; and since the whole economic considerations, both personal and national, are clearly shown to find their solution in pure food and healthy purpose; and since the humane soul is the one that grows likest God, and the inhumane soul the one that most denies Him; and since we cannot be truly humane and yet kill the objects of our compassion in order to gratify our eating lusts, there is no other way left open for us, but the narrow way of righteous dealing towards the sub-human as towards the human. And we make it our mission—I mean the mission of the Order of the. Cross—to lift men up to that plane Of being where divine compassion reigns; for we are not mere vegetarian economists, as we attach less importance to the mere economic consideration than to the higher motives; but we are Spiritual Humanitarians, believing most profoundly that pure food will at last help to realize that pure condition of body, through which alone the Divine can make itself manifest, and the soul attain to that perfection of being of which the noblest faiths have prophesied. (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "A Plea For Humaneness")

The Voice of Religion

And so my final appeal is to you, my reader, whoever you may be. Would you be one of the sons of God? Would you manifest in and through yourself the Divine pity, sympathy, and love? Would you attain to the Angelic condition, and minister even as heaven ministers to you? Then recognise your kinship to the races beneath you, and realise your responsibility towards them. Eat them not any more than you would your own kith and kin. Recognise that in many of them there is a brother or sister soul. Know through sympathy with them how truly and keenly they feel, and raise your voice against the sufferings inflicted upon them by a false science. Be to them as you would have the Angels be to you! Protect them with the wings of your pity, even as you would have God spread His Presence over you. So shall you be helped up to the Angelic ! The Divine ! To become One with God ! (J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures [1903], "The Voice of Religion")

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1903 | Rev. J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures; A Plea Historical, Scientific, Economic, Dynamic, Humane and Religious [First published as letters to the press and Concerning Human Carnavorism, London, 1903] (London: Order of the Cross, 1926; [Online at] Animal Rights History, 2006).