Changing Our Outlook Of Animals During The Period Of 1800 To 1910

Changing Our Outlook of Animals During the Period of 1800 to 1910

Short Essay

Concerning the period of 1800 to 1910, many movements were formed addressing the lives and suffering of animals. Such movements granted better welfare for animals as well as a sentient outlook towards them.

Animal protectionists in the nineteenth century worked to create legislation that granted animals immediate legal protections, as well as large-scale public education efforts to explain the harm of cruelty to animals in terms of the animals’ suffering[1]. As stated by Pearson in the Cow and the Plow, animal suffering was simply one of many potential definitions of cruelty’s damages, and when judges and other legal interpreters read animal protection statutes,

They are objects one minute, beloved pets the next, remote then humanlike. Animals are objects that must be hunted fattened, harvested, slaughtered, and processed into meat and clothing. Simultaneously, people nurture their darling pets, call them by name, include them in their families, please them with plentiful food and luxurious accommodations and mourn them when they die[8]. People advocated for pets. They sought to speak for and protect as they were beloved. A popular view in the 1900s was that some animals were good because they contributed to overall pleasure and well-being, whilst others were harmful because they perceived them as dangers to one's well-being. Animals may bring people together in a variety of ways. The most basic example is when people are drawn to a pet being walked by a stranger and feel it safe and easy to strike up a conversation because of the presence of the animal[9]. Animals in a more complicated way, form human societies by becoming the focus of shared concern and interest. With this being said many species were at risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation. They were a target for criticism. To stop or limit this suffering knowledge was gained and laws were set thanks to organizations like the

“The Cow and the Plow: Animal Suffering, Human Guilt, and the Crime of Cruelty.” Studies in Law, Politics and Society 36 (2005): 78. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1059-4337(05)36005-4.

[5] Jones, Susan D. “Chapter 5 Pricing the Priceless Pet.” Essay. In Valuing Animals Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America, 120. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

[6] Jones, Susan D. “Chapter 5 Pricing the Priceless Pet.” Essay. In Valuing Animals Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America, 122. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

[7] Jones, Susan D. “Chapter 5 Pricing the Priceless Pet.” Essay. In Valuing Animals Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America, 122. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

[8] Arluke, Arnold, and Robert Bogdan. “Chapter 1 Animals, Humans, and Postcards.” Essay. In Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935, 2. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010.

[9] Arluke, Arnold, and Robert Bogdan. “Chapter 1 Animals, Humans, and Postcards.” Essay. In Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935, 3. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,