Animals. CRUELTY TO. England has the honour of first forming societies for its prevention, and of first legislating for its punishment. The English Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1824, the Scottish in 1839. The Fellowship of Animals' Friends was organised in 1879, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as president. In the United States above thirty branches of a similar organisation were founded between 1866 and 1881; and the movement has extended into France and Germany.
Bear-baiting and bull-baiting were put down by law in 1835; and the drawing of carriages by dogs within London by an act of 1839, afterwards extended to the rest of the country. Under the statutes passed in 1845, 1849, 1854, 1861, and 1876, cruelty to domestic animals is punishable by fine and imprisonment. To kill, maim, or wound cattle is punishable with penal servitude for fourteen, or not less than seven years. A penalty of £5 attaches to the ill-treating or torturing of any animal. Before this, injury to animals, even when malicious, such as hounding cattle, was punished only as an offence against property, and it is still so punishable. These Cruelty Acts are supposed to apply to tamed beasts in menageries. The acts prohibit bull-baiting and dog or cock fighting, and apply important regulations to the slaughter of cattle and their conveyance by rail. Working horses with painful sores is an offence which unhappily has frequently to be prosecuted. Attempts have been made to abolish by law the cruelties connected with the fashionable amusement of shooting pigeons let loose from cages; and the friends of the horse agitate to do away with the cruel use of bearing-reins. In the way of kindness to animals, mention should be made of homes for stray dogs and cats; the dogs' home in London was founded in 1861. See VIVISECTION.