Chapter Sections
1. Steven Best
2. John Lawrence
3. Andrew Linzey
4. Richard Martin
5. The McLibel Two
6. Ingrid Newkirk
7. Jill Phipps
8. Henry Salt
9. Henry Spira
10. Peter Singer
11. Tom Regan
12. Richard D Ryder
How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals
Lawrence is one of the earliest writers in modern times on animal rights and welfare. His book published in 1796, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses and the Moral Duties of Man Towards Brute Creation (1) is a detailed account on horsemanship and the horse. It is remarkable for its day for a chapter entitled On the Right of Beasts, in which Lawrence implores us to treat animals kindly and with consideration because they are rational, sensible and have souls. Lawrence argued that animals have rights, a basic right of care, which should be endorse by the state. He recounts wanton cruelty he saw around him - horses thrashed with whips, cattle with tongues cut out and sheep with feet cut off (all alive) - and says,
I therefore propose, that the Rights of Beasts be formally acknowledged by the state, and that a law be framed upon that principle, to guard and protect them from acts of flagrant and wanton cruelty, whether committed by their owners or others. (2)Lawrence also says the state should enact laws to protect livestock during transportation and slaughter - anticipating Martin's Act (see Richard Martin, Chapter 6) passed by Parliament in 1822 and the first law by a state to give a measure of protection to domesticated animals.
Lawrence declared that wilful cruelty, as well as vivisection, should be outlawed and he opposed animal baiting. Yet he favoured killing animals for sport, as long as they were subsequently eaten. He also supported fox hunting, in the belief that foxes are vermin, and as predators deserve to be hunted and killed in turn (but then who should hunt and kill the human hunters, or are humans exempt from this logic?). His acquisition of a small farm and his interest in poultry might have influenced his attitude to hunting.
Very little is know about his life, but he was born in England where he lived and was descended from a line of brewers. For more about Lawrence see the entry Lawrence, John in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3).
References
(1) Lawrence, John. A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses and the Moral Duties of Man Towards Brute Creation. T N Longman: London. 1796.
(2) Op cit. volume 1, chapter 3, page 123.
(3) Mitchell, Sebastian, Lawrence, John. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
| How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals. © Roger (Ben) Panaman, April 2008. All rights reserved. |