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,
Can one really determine a person’s character by their treatment of animals? In “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London, a dog named Buck is kidnapped from his life of luxury, and forced into the wild. Buck becomes a sled dog and is put through various owners, both responsible, and irresponsible. London conveys the theme that one can judge a person's character based on their treatment of animals as seen through Buck’s positive relationship with John Thorton, and his negative relationship with Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. One can judge a persons character based on their treatment of animals as seen through Buck’s positive relationship with John Thorton.
In Australia there is no national act governing the rights of animals; instead there are separate state legislations such as the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW) and Animal Research Act 1985 (NSW). In the USA the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 was introduced to help regulate the use of animals as subjects in biomedical research. The legislation in place today minimise the harm on test subjects, and place safeguards, such as codes of conduct and ethical committees to ensure all research is done as ethically as
The problem of animal abuse is not new, but neither are the laws that protect animals and those laws are as equally important to the resolving of the problem. Overtime laws became more strict, this shows that people have become more involved with the problem and have stopped some cases of animal abuse before they started, but sometimes it’s too late and that needs to stop together need to stop that from happening. As proclaimed in the text, “ People have experimented with animals for hundreds of years. But the practice did not become widespread until the late 1800’s” (Animal Experimentation).
Studies show that with all of the animal experimentation that has been done, most of them were inhumane, unreliable and had violated the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. This act ensures that animal care for research is a main priority. It is also required to have appropriate veterinary care, housing, feeding, handling, sanitation, ventilation, and sheltering. For some, animal experimentation is “supposed” to help human beings use certain products for their own benefit. What people do not realize is that these animals have rights and that their rights are being more than violated.
They also required that the animal received enough pain medication for the experiments unless, it would cause an interference with the test results (“Explanation of the Animal Welfare Act”). This proved to be unsuccessful due to thousands of animals going through pain in experiments each year. In 1976, an amendment was made to the act again in order to make laws on how the animals were transferred to and from each location (“Explanation of the Animal Welfare Act”). Finally in 1985, it became required to have oversight for experiments and to be able to justify the tests being done on the animals (“Explanation of the Animal Welfare Act”).
The animal rights movement gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, as progressively people became aware of the mistreatment of animals in laboratories, factories, and farms. In 1877 the American Human Association was established as the national umbrella organization for anti-cruelty groups in the United States and Canada (Woodger, 2013, p. 145). One of their top priorities was to "extending humane propaganda” and introduce “humane literature into schools,” (p. 145). Animal rights activists in Canada work to improve the lives of animals through education, legislation, and activism. They protest to end the use of animals in research and testing, to improve conditions for farm animals, and to protect wildlife.
In 1966 the Animal Welfare Act was signed in order to get control over the treatment of animals that are being researched on. This act requires animals to be registered when they are being researched on but there is a large flaw in this act. The act does not cover birds, rats and mice; roughly 95% of research is conducted on mice and rats (Animal testing 101). Animal testing is torture. A great example of how horrible animal testing is an experiment that occurred in 1969 on monkeys to test drug addiction.
These cruelty laws should be re-written to better protect the lives of innocent animals and the possible danger to other humans who might become a future victims of these people whose abuse often transcends to the abuse of people. The History of the
“‘Cause the government, as cares for the lives of such man as you, as haven’t half the pluck of curs, lets a man kill a dog how he likes”, (Dickens 139) is what could be said in the Victorian era and, even with laws against animal abuse, is what is believed by some people today. From jabbing dogs with pokers in the Victorian era, to throwing a cat off a third floor balcony last year, animal abuse has always been a problem. The worst part is, animal abuse reports grow each year. Not everyone believes that animals can feel pain and grief the way humans do. In the historical fiction novel, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Dickens shows that people in the Victorian era could beat and even kill their animals if they wanted.
Animals are voiceless and cannot call out for help the way a human can and since now people can imagine what they are going through they can now be heard so the inhumane treatment and test towards these animals is
Researchers estimated over 26 million animals were used for scientific tests and commercial testing subject every year in the United States. Over the years animals were used to be tested on medical treatments, products for human uses, health care, and etc. The practice of researching on living animals has started since 500 BC. Opponents of this act say that it is cruel to experiment on animals, there are other methods available to replace the cruel act of experimenting on living animals, and that the human bodies and animal’s bodies are totally two different features and the research often yields irrelevant results. The federal Animal Welfare or AWA passed the animal testing act in 1966 and amended in 1970, 1976, and 1985.
Legislation prohibiting cruelty against animals originated in the English Parliament in 1822, and variations of this type of legislation proliferated over the next century, particularly in countries formerly under English colonial rule. A number of countries continue to have laws on prevention of cruelty to animals that date from early to mid-20th century, before the significant development and internationalization of the animal welfare movement. Animal cruelty legislation prohibits the most extreme, deliberate or willful forms of mistreatment of animals, imposing criminal sanctions for certain acts that constitute "cruelty to animals". This is in contrast to animal welfare legislation, which assumes that some conditions are unavoidable collateral
Many debilitating diseases and conditions have been cured and prevented using vaccinations that were tested on animals. For example, Emil von Behring performed an experiment on guinea pigs that helped form the vaccine for diphtheria (Soft Schools). The significance of this experiment helped von Behring earn a Nobel Prize in Physiology (Soft Schools). Following von Behring’s findings, Edgar Adrian used frogs to confirm the specific way that the brain sends signals to different parts of the body (Soft Schools). Advancements in the understanding of diabetes, tuberculosis, and polio, along with the formation of anesthetics all were successful with the help of animal testing (Soft Schools).
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) of United States gives some protections to warm-blooded animals used in research laboratories, which only cover 5% of animals normally used for testing. Under AWA, all testing on animals which are covered must minimized the pain on animals and provide appropriate veterinary care. The AWA should make further improvements which cover as much animals as possible. In UK, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 defined regulated procedures as animal experiments that could potentially cause "pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm”. It prevents animals from unnecessary suffering.
