Britain’s laws preventing cruelty to animals are some of the strictest in the world today, but earlier centuries quite differed. It took a man with a pair of pet leeches, a charismatic MP with a battered donkey, and changes to social classes brought about by the Industrial Revolution to change the scene.
Folks living in Early Modern Britain could expect to see bear baiting, staged dog fights, and cavalier beatings of farm animals.
But with industrialization, the factory-controlling middle classes began to view the non-human world from a new perspective: they now looked down upon the cost-cutting but abusive behaviors to animals that only the common peasants seemed to do. Also, wealthier people began to collect pets more, narrowing the gap between human and non-human animals. Newer interpretations of the Biblical story of Genesis also added to the change, emphasizing the God-given role to humanity to dominate and yet care for Earth’s creatures.
Enter one Thomas Erskine, a lawyer and Member of the House of Lords, whose love for animals spurred him to propose protective legislation. Among his pets he included two leeches (named “Home” and “Cline”, FWIW) whom he accredited with saving his life. Initial proposals failed to pass Parliament due to the proposed legislation’s clear anti-peasant bias. However, another MP named Richard Martin soon stepped in to promote the cause. Martin got legislation through with his effective stagemanship — he brought a donkey who had been badly whipped and beaten into court, along with the animal’s clearly unrepentant abuser. The votes of the MPs changed, and the so-called “Martin Act” of 1822 to prevent cruelty to cattle became one of Britain’s first animal protection laws.
Two years later in 1824, a group of like-minded Brits formed the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, renamed in 1840 to the current organization, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or RSPCA.
Today in Britain, under laws like the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, animal owners are legally responsible for providing safety, food, and shelter.
Sources: _History Today _ “A donkey’s day in court,” Alexander Lee, vol 71, issue 11, Nov 2021. _International Vegetarian Union_, “England: early 19th century Lord (Thomas) Erskine (1750-1823), by John Hostettler. From _Justice of the Peace_. www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare.
