JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



23 



sufferings that the lower animals have 

 endured at the hands of men. The 

 whole animal creation groaneth and 

 travaileth in pain together until now. 

 We are all more or less familiar with 

 the terrible sufferings endured by the 

 domestic animals in civilized united 

 States in the nineteenth century. 

 We can realize what it is in Uncivil- 

 ized and barbarous countries, and 

 what it was in the centuries that are 

 past. 



Jeremy Bentham, as far as I have 

 discovered, was the first person that 

 said that their capacity to suffer pain 

 gave to animals rights which man 

 must regard. Lord Erskine was 

 probably the first to illustrate that 

 mere ownership does not give a man 

 a right to abuse one of his own ani- 

 mals. On Hamstead Heath, seeing a 

 ruffian beating unmercifully a 

 wretched horse, the Lord Chancellor 

 interfered. The fellow said, "Can't I 

 do as I like with my own?" "Yes," re- 

 plied Erskine, "this stick is my own," 

 and he gave the scamp a good thrash- 

 ing. If animals have no future we 

 are under the greater obligation to 

 see to it that they have enjoyment 

 here and now. What is the cause of 

 the apathy of the Church, its wrong 

 sentiments and unworthy conduct in 

 regard to the lower animals? It has 

 received no encouragement in this 

 course from the Old Testament or 

 from the words of Christ. "Every 

 beast of the forest is mine, and the 

 cattle upon a thousand hills. I know 

 all the fowls of the mountains ; and 

 the wild beasts of the field are mine." 

 This language implies that the birds 

 of the air, the beasts of the forests 

 and the domestic cattle are a noble 

 possession of God and that thej^ are 

 under his protection. "Are not two 

 sparrows sold for a farthing? And 

 one of them shall not fall on the 

 ground without your Father." These 

 words of Christ imply that a spar- 

 row, two of the m worth only a 

 farthing, cannot fall to the ground 

 without the notice of God. 



We ought not to expect any teach- 

 ing on a subject like this from the 

 Apostles and the early Evangelists. 

 They were in middle life when they 

 received the commission to proclaim 

 the Gospel and they had a great work 

 to perform. They were determined 

 to know nothing among men except 

 Christ and Him crucified. 



But the later Christian teachers and 

 preachers have had time and oppor- 

 tunity to preach and write on every 

 conceivable ethical and religious sub- 

 ject. There is only one subject that 

 they have almost entirely ignored, — ■ 

 the rights of the lower animals. That 

 one fourth of the physical suffering in 

 any community is caused by cruelty 

 to animals is a moderate estimate. 

 Prior to 1850 verj^ few words had 

 been spoken or written by Christian 

 teachers to protest against this crime 

 (for it has now been made a crime 

 by nearly all civilized states and 

 countries.) Sir Arthur Helps esti- 

 mates that he has heard 1,390 sermons 

 and he thinks that not one of them 

 was on this or any kindred subject. 

 With these Christian teachers, man 

 was everything, beasts nothing. 

 With them, domestic animals were 

 things, not living and sensitive beings 

 which could be made peaceful and 

 happy by kind treatment and be made 

 wretched by neglect and abuse. With 

 them, man was made a little lower 

 than the angels. In their minds, an- 

 gels were not the spirits of the de- 

 parted but were separate beings of 

 great power and perfections. 



This ill-balanced teaching was 

 terrible in its consequences. Men 

 became conceited, thinking that the 

 sun, moon and stars were created 

 for them, that every living thing 

 was made for their service, not 

 believing as we do that all the animal 

 kingdom was created for its own en- 

 joyment. Man's ill treatment of ani- 

 mals has reacted upon him with ter- 

 rible force. It is estimated that in 

 India with its population of 250 mil- 

 lions, where animal life is held sacred, 

 there is not one foui-th the amount of 

 crime that there is in England with a 

 population of only 20 millions. Eng- 

 land's higher civilization would lead 

 us to expect just the reverse. In 

 proportion to the number of inhab- 

 itants, many times more crimes are 

 committed in the United States than 

 in Japan, whose animals are treated 

 with great tenderness and care. 



Great would be the consequences if 

 every child in the State of Maine 

 was taught from infancy, by example 

 as well as precept, that the kitten and 

 puppy were beautiful and precious 

 creations of God that must be gently 

 handled and loved. Since the impres- 

 sions of childhood are so lasting we 



