ABSTRACT
An immensely popular organization in late Victorian England, the Bands of Mercy drew thousands of children from around the country to champion the rights of animals. Modeled after the Band of Hope of the temperance movement, the Bands of Mercy were established in 1875 by Catherine Smithies as local, monthly gatherings for boys and girl to learn and sing about the kind treatment of wild, work, and domesticated animals. Due to their success, the Bands were brought under the auspices of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in 1882. Their periodical, The Band of Mercy Advocate, was established by Thomas Bywater Smithies in 1879 and ran for another 50-some years to educate and entertain children with professional engravings, fully scored songs, stories of heroic animals and children, and nonfiction essays. The Band holds an important, if unacknowledged role, in the history of the animal rights movement, specifically as seen through the pages of The Advocate. Specifically, while society linked the nonhuman animal and human children in terms of their bodily vulnerability, muteness, and passivity, The Advocate renegotiated this association to ultimately give both animals and children bodily value despite their smallness, a recognized voice for change, and a powerful agency.
