Other Anthropology Commons^™

Updating The British Cruelty To Animals Act Of 1876: Can The Center Hold?, Judith E. Hampson

Laws and Legislation Collection

Long experience with unsuccessful attempts by British animal welfare groups to promote private members' bills for reform or rep I a cement of the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act (Viet. C. 77, 1876) has convinced reformists that achieving this kind of change by lobbying Parliament may be impossible. It was for this reason that a small reformist group- spearheaded by the ex-chairman of the Labour Party, Lord Houghton, and an eminent surgeon, the late Lord Platt- was formed and drafted reform proposals in a document widely known as the Houghton/Piatt Memorandum (paper submitted to the Home Secretary, 1976). This report …

The Changing Concept Of Animals As Property, Vincent P. Mccarthy

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

Enforced and maintained by a legal superstructure that regulated every aspect of a black [slave's] social, political, economic, and religious life, his property status continued until the middle of the nineteenth century when Congress passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which overturned the Dred Scott decision and recognized that a black human being had legally protectible rights.

There are some signs in recent legal decisions that a similar evolution in the status of animals is taking place: judges are beginning to draw distinctions between animals and property.

But can we ever expect that the courts will …