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

Animal Rights History »» Thomas Forster

1839 | Philozoia, Or Moral Reflections on the Actual Condition of the Animal Kingdom, and on the Means of Inproving the Same

From Henry Salt's Bibliography on the Rights of Animals

The author of this excellent treatise, which is addressed to Lewis Gompertz, was a distinguished naturalist and astronomer who had taken an active part in the founding of the Animals' Friend Society. He was born in 1789, and died at Brussels in 1860, having lived abroad during the latter part of his life. A section of his book is devoted to the "Condition of Animals on the Continent."

"One of the surest means," he says, "of bettering the condition of animals will be to improve the character of man, by giving to children a humane rational education, and, above 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 sport, he says: "You will do well to reflect on this, and to inquire whether the just suppression of bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and other such vulgar and vicious pastimes, should not, as the age becomes more and more civilized, be followed by the abolition of fox-hunting, and all sporting not immediately directed to the object of obtaining game for food by the most easy and expeditious means."

On the subject of "the Cruelty connected with the Culinary Art,"he has also some wise remarks: "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."

Equally noteworthy are the chapters on "Cruelty in Surgical Experiments," and "Animals considered as our Fellow Creatures."

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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).

1860 | "Obituary—Thomas Forster, M.D.," The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review 3 [New Series] (1860-May) 514-7

1892 | Henry Salt, Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress, with a Bibliographical Appendix [First Edition: London & New York, 1892] (London & New York, 1894; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003).

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