Holly Hechel Final Draft
A Victorian History of Animal Rights
Animals were an important investment to the average Englishman during the Victorian Era, even more so than today. They were necessary for transportation, food, and clothing, as well as entertainment and livelihood. Despite all that animals did for the Victorians, humans didn’t always care for their wellbeing. Animals were taken for granted: used up and then tossed aside when they were nearly dead, as the character of Nicholas Skinner in Black Beauty says: “ ‘…My plan is to work ‘em as long as they’ll go, and then sell ‘em for what they’ll fetch…’”[1] During the course of the nineteenth century, however, the attitudes of Englishmen became more reverent as observed through the founding of the RSPCA and analysis from men such as Henry Salt and William Drummond.
However, before the nineteenth century, animal rights were hardly contemplated. In the eighteenth century, children’s books were written for the first time. This prompted new ideas about the child as an individual with valid opinions and accurate notions of right and wrong. As a result, adults began to see a connection with care for animals in one’s youth and care for humans in later adulthood.[2]
Bull Baiting as depicted by an 18th century artist[3]
The history of animal rights in
In
the Victorian Era, several other men began to speak out against the injustice
done to animals, namely Henry Salt and William Drummond. In the
Henry Salt[8]
Salt quotes Humphry Primatt’s idea
of the rights of animals as “Food, rest, and tender usage,”[9]
which is expressed many times in Black
Beauty. Black Beauty had the pleasures of food and “tender usage” in many
of the places where he enjoyed his youth, but his right to relax was honored
particularly during his time at Jerry Barker’s home: “…the best thing that we
had [there] was our Sundays for rest; we worked so hard in the week that I do
not think we could have kept up to it, but for that day…”.[10]
Drummond also states that animals are endowed by God and that humans have no
business taking away their rights, “[Animals] are God’s pensioners—he fills
their hearts, as the hearts of the children of m[ine], with food and
gladness…gives them a shelter in the umbrageous foliage…and though he gives man
the privilege to use them as his wants and necessities require, he gives no
authority to abuse the privilege, and convert liberty into lawless
licentiousness.”[11] These
men took animal rights very seriously and sought to inspire others to do the
same. At this time,
In addition to the rights of animals, Salt and Drummond also mentioned the rights of man to take the lives of animals or use them for his purposes. Many animals in those days were used much like an article of clothing or field for farming: the newness would prompt repeated and prolonged use, but once the animal (particularly horses or cattle) became “lazy” or worn out, the owner would abuse and mistreat the animal, provoking it to lash out in anger or fear. As portrayed in Black Beauty, animals desire to work hard and do their jobs when they are treated with respect and are nurtured, much like people. Drummond holds that without animals as food, too much of the land around us would have to be used for growing crops and that the animals would suffer a lack of fields for grazing. He says that “by no art, in our present state, can we possibly avoid depriving some creatures of life. The Brahmin who supposed that he had lived all his days on rice and vegetables only, was convinced of the contrary when he saw a new world of life rendered visible to him by the microscope.”[12]
Indian Brahmin and His Wife, ca. 1945[13]
The difference is that we must use our animal resources wisely, not killing more than we need or abusing the animals before killing them; a swift death like the one felt by the pig in Jude the Obscure is the most humane way to use animals for nourishment purposes.
Salt criticizes the use of animals as a means for jest or pastime, saying that “the dancing bear in the village” and “the more elaborate but not less idiotic performances on the stage” are despicable; “Many of them are cruel; all of them are stupid; most of them are both.”[14] Even today we can see examples of this, the most extreme being the recent interest in the hoax Bonsai Kitten, a kitten raised in a glass jar.[15] Animals, as God intended them to be created, were for His pleasure, as well as the pleasure of man. This doesn’t give man the right to use animals to the point of their discontent, harming them in the process of making light of animals’ behaviors or appearances.
Christians are taught that all animals are under the authority of man as given to Adam in Genesis 2. However, the hierarchy that humans have imposed upon animals and that was imposed in the Victorian era violates this agreement of authority. The intention that the God of the Bible had for creation before the fall of man was that everything was to live in perfect harmony. This hierarchy also gives us the idea that animals don’t have emotion since they are seen as inferior. After the introduction of animal rights, the Victorian English noticed the emotional expression of animals. Charles Darwin was a proponent of this idea and believed that animals’ emotional responses can be similar to humans or unique to each species, such as the stamp of rabbits in anger or the ruffled feathers of frustrated birds.[16] These ideas were incorporated into animal treatment as exemplified in Black Beauty’s repeated references to the emotions that Black Beauty felt at the loss of his friend Ginger and the pain he suffered under Reuben Smith.
In general, the emotional goal of animals is to be content:
If only that were true[17]
The drives built into animals such
as the mating instinct and desire to find food and rest are all to reach the
same goal of contentment. One way this goal of contentment is deterred by
humans is through castration or neutering and spaying of pets and other
domesticated animals. This is a less common procedure in
Animals were also
proven by some to have their own intelligence. In the late 1830s, a man named
Sir John Lubbock performed an intelligence experiment on a black poodle named
Van. The experiment he tried was an adaptation of an experiment on a
handicapped girl named Laura Bridgman, created by a Dr. Howe.[18]
The Victorian view of animals is one that continues
to remain steadfast even today. The English have proven that their methods of
animal treatment are proper and sound and more countries today, including the
Total Word Count: 1,745
Word Count of Quotes: 302
Word Count Less Quotes and Captions: 1,443
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