Henry S. Salt
Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress
UUID: b2c8564c-aa01-4e65-86a9-1aa673cc0325
This ebook was created with StreetLib Writehttps://writeapp.io
Table of contents
PREFACE
CHAPTER I. THE PRINCIPLE OF ANIMALS’ RIGHTS.
CHAPTER II. THE CASE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
CHAPTER III. THE CASE OF WILD ANIMALS.
CHAPTER IV. THE SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS FOR FOOD.
CHAPTER V. SPORT, OR AMATEUR BUTCHERY.
CHAPTER VI. MURDEROUS MILLINERY.
CHAPTER VII. EXPERIMENTAL TORTURE.
CHAPTER VIII. LINES OF REFORM.
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY[60]
FOOTNOTES:
COLOPHON
PREFACE
As
a memorial of work done on behalf of the rights of animals, it has
been thought fitting, by members and friends of the late
Humanitarian
League, that a new edition of this little book should be published
in
the year that brings the centenary of “Martin’s Act,” the first
legislation for the prevention of cruelty to the non-human
races.Of
the progress made in this branch of ethics, since 1822, some
account
is incidentally given in the book; and during the last few years
the
advance has been steadily continued. Attention has been drawn, for
instance, to the antiquated methods employed in the slaughter of
animals for food; and this has corresponded with an increase in the
practice of vegetarianism. The treatment of other domestic animals,
such as pit ponies, and the worn-out horses exported to the
Continent, has stirred the public conscience; and at the same time
the cruelty and folly of what is technically known as “the wild
animal industry”—the kidnapping of “specimens” for exhibition
in zoological gardens, or as “performing animals” on the
stage—are becoming better understood.Again,
the disgust caused by the ravages of “murderous millinery” (a
term first used as a chapter-heading in this book) has taken
visible
shape in the recent Act for the regulation of the plumage trade;
and
even “sport,” the last and dearest stronghold of the savage, has
been seriously menaced, not only by the
discontinuance of the Royal Buckhounds in 1901, but also lately by
the emphatic condemnation of pigeon-shooting.The
core of the contention for a recognition of the rights of animals
will be found in the following passage of a letter addressed by Mr.
Thomas Hardy to the Humanitarian League in 1910:
“
Few
people seem to perceive fully as yet that the most far-reaching
consequence of the establishment of the common origin of all
species
is ethical; that it logically involved a readjustment of altruistic
morals, by enlarging, as a necessity of rightness, the application
of
what has been called ‘The Golden Rule’ from the area of mere
mankind to that of the whole animal kingdom.... While man was
deemed
to be a creation apart from all other creations, a secondary or
tertiary morality was considered good enough to practise towards
the
‘inferior’ races; but no person who reasons nowadays can escape
the trying conclusion that this is not maintainable.”It
may be taken, perhaps, as a sign of the extension of humane ideas
that, since its first appearance in 1892, this essay on “Animals’
Rights” has passed through numerous editions, and has been
translated into French, German, Dutch, Swedish, and other European
tongues.Valuable
suggestions concerning the book have reached me from several
friends:
in particular I am indebted to Sir George Greenwood, who has been
actively associated, both in Parliament and elsewhere, with the
cause
of justice to animals.H.
S. S.January
1922.
CHAPTER I. THE PRINCIPLE OF ANIMALS’ RIGHTS.
