2 IS ANIMAL LIFE SACRED? 



to recognise some disadvantages accruing therefrom 

 to the human race, regarded simply as vertebrate 

 creatures. 



But in speculating on the sacredness of life other than 

 human, the guiding principles are not so clear. Vege- 

 tarians apart, there are many earnest well-meaning 

 people who hold it unlawful to sacrifice life animal 

 life for any reason short of necessity. Be it said in 

 passing that these benevolent people draw the frontier 

 between the animal and vegetable kingdoms with a 

 precision which scientific men may envy, but cannot 

 emulate. Some of the humbler forms of cryptogams 

 have been ranged alternately in one realm and the 

 other, and still occupy the debatable land between the 

 two. Let us not, however, shelter ourselves behind any 

 such nice distinctions. The question to be answered is 

 simply this whether there is any peculiar reverence 

 due on moral grounds to what is popularly understood 

 as animal life. Let us not even take our stand on the 

 well-fortified position of food supply, but pass at once 

 to ground where necessity cannot be relied on as a 

 defence. 



The tender-hearted people above referred to are speci- 

 ally severe on what we are brought up to call field 

 sports, but what they define as ' blood sports.' It is not 

 necessary, they say, to take the lives of animals of the 

 chase, therefore it is cruel and demoralising. Life is a 

 sacred thing ; and they invoke the legislature to protect 

 it, just as it has protected domestic animals against the 

 infliction of suffering. Now if life, per se, be admitted 



