ABSTRACT
Although England is commonly credited with the invention of modern sport (Elias and Dunning, 1994), the role of the British in the genesis of the animal protection movement is less well known. It is, nevertheless, a well-established fact that any campaign to improve the way humans treat animals can trace their origins to the work of 19th-century English activists. As early as 1809, a group of prominent Liverpudlians set up the Society for the Suppression of Wanton Cruelty to Animals. Although this society soon folded, a similar organization, founded in London in 1824, was destined to be less short-lived: the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals still exists today, and indeed is still the largest animal welfare organization in the world. In the period after its formation the SPCA quickly managed to attract the support of many respected individuals, including members of the aristocracy and prominent figures from the ranks of the upper-middle classes, as well as numerous clergymen and members of Parliament. In 1840 the society obtained the patronage of Queen Victoria herself, which led to its adoption of its current name: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). Embraced by large sections of the Establishment (Harrison, 1973), 6 “the RSPCA became perhaps the most influential voluntary organization in Great Britain in the second half of the century” (Turner, 1980, p. 177). These animal rights pioneers were largely preoccupied with lobbying legislators, and campaigning for the introduction of laws which, by banning certain practices, would change public attitudes. Indeed, even before the foundation of the RSPCA, a number of its founder members had participated in campaigns to put pressure on Parliament to enact legislation for the protection of animals. In 1821, a group of MPs led by Richard Martin, and including William Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton, introduced a bill “to prevent the cruel and improper treatment of cattle.” A law was enacted the following year, largely thanks to the support of the clergy and a group of London magistrates. An “Act to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle,” also known as “Martin’s Act,” protected only “horses, mares, geldings, mules, asses, cows, heifers, steers, oxen, sheep and other cattle.”
