Animal Rights History »» Animal Rights Law-History

Animal Rights Law-History of Legal Protections for Animals;
Legislative History of the Humane Movement Against Animal Cruelty

Explore the History of Animal Rights & the Humane Movement against Cruelty to Animals—Laws, Acts and other Legislation enacted for the protection of animals as well as literature remarking on the history of the humane movement highlight animal rights activists, animal welfare advocates, and authors accomplishments for animal rights, animal welfare and the protection of animals.

Legislation is the record, the register, of the moral sense of the community; it follows, not precedes, the development of that moral sense, but nevertheless in its turn reacts on it, strengthens it, and secures it against the danger of retrocession. It is well that society should proclaim, formally and decisively, its abhorrence of certain practices ; and I do not think it can be doubted, by those who have studied the history of the movement, that…animals would be infinitely worse at this day but for…progressive and punitive legislation (Henry Salt, Animals' Rights, "The Principle of Animals' Rights")

Thomas Wentworth's Act of 1635 in Ireland, as well as Nathaniel Ward's contribution to the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 establishes law against cruelty to animals almost 200 years prior to the passage of Richard Martin's Act of 1822, a Bill to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle. Since these contributions were largely unknown until the late 20th century, the modern era of anti-cruelty legislation is usually traced back to the precedence set by "Martin's Act" and the amendments and legislative enactments against cruelty to animals that followed. However, it is King Ashoka, in the 3rd century BCE that we must honor as being the first to decree law not only for the protection of animals, creating the first list of "protected" species but, progressive even by today's standards, proclaiming the slaughter of animals as food or for sacrifice unlawful.

Ancient Laws for the Protection of Animals

The mythical figure of Triptolemus, "the most ancient of the Athenian legislators...established laws for the Athenians…Honour your parents; Sacrifice to the Gods from the fruits of the earth; Injure not animals."

274-232 BCE India | "Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 1 ) proclaims Asoka, as emperor of India who "became a Buddhist and a vegetarian and, in accordance with the doctrine of 'ahimsa' (nonviolence), supressed the royal hunts and ordered the curtailment of the slaugher of animals throughout his empire" (Ryder, 21). He "made provision for medical treatment…and had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 2 ). His edicts promoted "kindness to living beings" (The Fourteen Rock Edicts, 11) and "not killing living beings" (Minor Rock Edicts, 2) and in stating that "animals were to be protected"(The Seven Pillar Edicts, 7) provides us with perhaps "the earliest known list of protected species" (Guruge, "Emperor Asoka's Place in History," 202 [offsite pdf]). Asoka's edicts "were recorded on on a large stone pillars and rocks found scattered in more than thirty places throughout India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan" (The Edicts of Asoka [offsite ebook]).

Early Anti-Cruelty Legislation

1635 | Ireland Parliament [Thomas Wentworth ], Act against Plowing by the Tayle, and Pulling the Wooll off Living Sheep, 1635 Richard Ryder gives due credit to "distinguished historian, Sir George Clark" for the information Clark provided on "this much forgotten piece of legislation… probably the earliest legal reference to use this concept [of 'cruelty to beasts'] in the English Language." (Richard Ryder, Speciesim, 5-6)

1641 | Massachusetts Bay Colony [Nathaniel Ward], "Off the Bruite Creatures" Liberty 92 and 93 in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 Emily Stewart Leavitt notes Nathaniel Ward's contribution to "rights of animals by enacting statutory legislation to protect them from cruel treatment. In 1641 the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to have printed their first legal code . . . [in which] cruelty to animals is forbidden…the first anti-cruelty law [in the United States] and the first law to protect animals in transit." (EmilyLeavitt, Animals Legal Rights, 13-14)

Pleas for Legislation

1737-Jan | "All call loudly on our Governors and Magistrates to exert their Authority and Power utterly to abolish so Dishonourable, so Mischievous, so Barbarous and Immoral a Custom, which too long has been practised with Impunity among us." (Gentleman's Magazine, "An Enquiry into the Original Meaning of Cock-Throwing on Shrove-Tuesday," 8)

1749-Apr | "0 that some good christian would cause this my first and last speech to be printed, and published thro' the nation. Perhaps the legislature may not think it beneath them to take our sad case into consideration." (Gentleman's Magazine, "Wonderful Speech of a Hen," 148)

1789 [1780] | Jeremy Bentham, "Under the Gentoo and Mahometan religions, the interests of the rest of the animal creation seem to have met with some attention. Why have they not universally, with as much as those of human creatures, allowance made for the difference in point of sensibility? Because the laws that are have been the work of mutual fear; a sentiment which the less rational animals have not had the same means as man has of turning to account. Why ought they not? No reason can be given…The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" (Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chap. 17, § 1, ¶4 Footnote [offsite ebook])

1796 | John Lawrence, "The grand source of the unmerited and superfluous misery of beasts, exists, in my opinion, in a defect in the constitution of all communities. No human government, I believe, has ever recognized the jus animalium, which surely ought to form a part of the jurisprudence of every system, founded on the principles of justice and humanity. The simple right of these four-legged, and mute citizens, hath already been discussed. Experience plainly demonstrates the inefficacy of mere morality to prevent aggression, and the necessity of coercive laws for the security of rights. I therefore propose, that the Rights of Beasts be formally acknowledged by the state, and that a law be framed upon that principle, to guard and protect them from acts of flagrant and wanton cruelty, whether committed by their owners or others." (John Lawrence, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses, "On the Rights of Beasts," 123)

1798] Thomas Young, "There have been instances in this country, within these few years, of men being brought to trial for [cruelty to] horses. Although the evidence was clear and decisive as to the facts, the Jury were induced to pronounce a verdict of Not Guilty ; because it appeared, that however savage and inhuman the conduct of the prisoners had been, unless it could be proved to have proceeded from motives of malice and personal revenge against the owners of the horses, they could not legally be found guilty under the statutes on which they had been indicted. In such cases surely the law labours under some imperfection, which may deserve the notice of those who are able to apply a remedy." (Thomas Young, Essay on Humanity to Animals, "On Cruelty to Horses," 103-104)

1799 | Rev. Charles Daubeny , "And although abused dumb animals may not, literally speaking, rise in judgment against him ; yet it should be remembered, that their Creator will take their cause in hand ; on the consideration, that the abuse of any of God's works must originate, in an irreligious disregard of the God that made them. With persons who look not beyond the present world . . . they know that there is no court of justice here below in which actions of this nature are tried . . . for alas ! there is no human law to prevent such savage practices." (Charles Daubeny, A Sermon on Cruelty to Dumb Animals, 8)

Early Attempts at Legislation

[1800 Pulteney] Bill to Prevent the Practice of Bull Baiting

1809 Lord Erskine | Bill for Preventing Wanton and Malicious Cruelty to Animals

1809-May-15 | Lord Erskine, "Their freedom and enjoyments, when they cease to be consistent with our just dominion and enjoyments, can be no part of their natures ; but whilst they are consistent, their rights, subservient as they are, ought to be as sacred as our own ... Every other branch of our duties, when subject to frequent violation, has been recognised and inculcated by our laws, and the breaches of them repressed by punishments ; and why not in this, where our duties are so important, so universally extended, and the breaches of them so frequent and so abominable ?…The next generation will feel, in the first dawn of their ideas, the august relation they stand in to the lower world, and the trust which their station in the universe imposes on them ; and it will not be left to a future Sterne to remind us, when we put aside even a harmless insect, that the world is large enough for both. This extension of benevolence to objects beneath us, become habitual by a sense of duty inculcated by law, will reflect back upon our sympathies for one another ; so that I may venture to say firmly to your Lordships, that the Bill I propose to you, if it shall receive the sanction of Parliament, will not only be an honour to the country, but an era in the history of the world." (Lord Erskine The Speech of Lord Erskine on the…Bill for Preventing Malicious and Wanton Cruelty to Animals, 274-276)

Modern Legislative Beginnings

Thomas Wentworth's Act of 1635 in Ireland, as well as Nathaniel Ward's contribution to the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 establishes American and English law against cruelty to animals almost 200 years prior to the passage of Richard Martin's 1822 Bill to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle. However, since these contributions were largely unknown until the late 20th century, the modern era of anti-cruelty legislation is usually traced back to the precedence set by "Martin's Act" and the amendments and legislative enactments against cruelty to animals that followed.

1822-Jul-22 | United Kingdom Parliament [Richard Martin], Act to Prevent the Cruelty and Improper Treatment of Cattle, 1822, July 22.

Literature remarking on the

Legislative History of the Humane Movement

1875 | Dr. James A. Macaulay, "Means of Prevention, Legal and Educational" Chap. 3 in A Plea for Mercy to Animals

1796 | John Lawrence, "'Rights of Beasts'" and "'The Animal-Question'" Annotated Extracts in the Appendix of Rights of an Animal by Edward Byron Nicholson.

1879 | Edward Byron Nicholson, "Conscience and Animal-Rights," Chap. 3 in The Rights of an Animal: A New Essay in Ethics

1892 | Henry Salt, "The Principle of Animals' Rights" Chap. 1 in Animals' Rights

Works Consulted

Edward G Fairholme and Wellesly Pain, A Century of Work for the Animals: The History of the R.S.P.C.A., 1824-1924 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924).

Aaron Garrett, Introduction to Animal Rights and Souls in the Eighteenth Century (England: Thoemmes Press, 2000).

Emily Stewart Leavitt, "The Evolution of Anti-Cruelty Laws in the United States." Chap. 1 in Animals and Their Legal Rights: A Survey of American Laws from 1641 to 1968 (New York: Animal Welfare Institute, 1968).

Richard D. Ryder, "The Struggle Against Speciesism," Chap 1 in Animals' Rights—A Symposium, Edited by D. Paterson and Richard D. Ryder (London: Centaur Press Ltd, 1979).

Peter Singer, "Man's Dominion...A Short History of Specieism," Chap 5 in Animal Liberation, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1975).

E.S. Turner, All Heaven in a Rage (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1965).

Transcriber's Notes

Animal Rights History

These pages are part of an ongoing effort to provide free online access to historical literature on animal rights, animal welfare and the humane movement against animal cruelty.

Quotes briefly introduce animal rights activists, animal welfare advocates and authors; the history of animal rights, animal welfare and animal protection; and the literature of the humane movement against cruelty to animals.

Free Online Library Complete Texts · Accessible Online · Free of Charge Links to primary source historical literature document the authenticity of quotations while providing more in-depth insight into the ideologies of the humane movement against cruelty to animals and additional historical perspective on the continuing struggle for animal rights, animal welfare and the protection of animals.