i 9 8 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Broadly speaking three influences tend to foster animal 

 life: the premeditated protection of the law, the gentle sway 

 of popular favour, and the solicitude bred of superstition. 

 Of these the first has proved to be the most potent. 



THE PROTECTION OF THE LAW AND ITS EFFECTS 



In Scotland, as elsewhere in countries long settled by 

 man, protective legislation on behalf of animals has been 

 a matter of much experiment, and of a slow and gradual 

 evolution which has progressed step by step with the advance 

 of political and social ideals. Indeed the laws relating to 

 animals were for long entirely social in their bearing, and 

 had as little thought for the animals themselves as they had 

 much concern for their assumed lords and masters. The 

 development of a practical love for nature is a national 

 acquisition of very recent date. 



So we find three broad but distinct stages in the evolution 

 of protective legislation. At first the king only and his nobles 

 were the principals concerned, and the laws ^ere feudal laws, 

 the main object of which was to ensure the entertainment of 

 the Court. So arose the Game Laws that great bulk of 

 legislation regulating the preservation of sport animals. With 

 the decay of feudalism and the extension of power amongst 

 the landed classes, the great lairds and lesser lairds came to 

 be included in the magic circle for whose benefit the Game 

 Laws exist. 



Further, with the decay of feudalism and the growing 

 importance of the economic aspect of the country's welfare, 

 a second class of law arose that regulating the protection 

 of animals whose significance lay in their economic value. 



And lastly, only in recent times, there arose, with the 

 spread of power amongst the people at large and the develop- 

 ment of a democratic instinct, laws which endeavour to pre- 

 serve the rarity and beauty of the countryside for the people 

 the beginnings of an aesthetic code. 



The influence on Scottish animal life of these various 

 bodies of law, protecting creatures for the sake of sport, for 

 utility, or for aesthetic reasons, can best be shown by a 

 discussion of the bearing and scope of each, and this is 

 attempted in the following three sections. 



