In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

chapter 1 Resurrecting the Voice Animal Advocacy in History A Robin Redbreast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage. —William Blake You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. D uring an unusual warm spell early last year, I shed some of the many layers of clothes required to survive a New England winter and ventured out for a stroll in a nearby town. I eventually migrated to the local bookshop in search of something to read during the inevitable return and last stand of the winter season. As row after row of magazines tempted me with discourses on everything from rock “grrrls” to literary criticism, a rather striking cover drew my eye toward the nature section. A chimpanzee with hand tucked under chin stared back at me as though contemplating some weighty issue of the world. The bold, multicolored headline next to the philosophical primate asked “Should Animals Have Legal Rights?” Since I had spent many of my self-absorbed graduate school years researching the historical issues and people surrounding this very question, I quickly flipped to the relevant pages behind the provocative cover. The article satisfied the casual reader within me but disappointed the social historian. The author adeptly maneuvered through many of the current and hotly contested issues related to animal rights, including animal intelligence, the ability of various species to feel pain, the prevalent use of animals in medical experiments, and dissection in schools, among others. Furthermore, he persuasively argued that there had been a recent , discernible shift in public attitudes toward a greater concern for the rights of animals, citing public opinion polls, numerous legislative initiatives (mostly at the state level), and legal victories since 1990 to reform , regulate, or ban everything from steel traps to factory farms, cockand dogfighting, greyhound racing, and puppy mills. All of this was fascinating . What disappointed me was the painfully brief foray into past debates over the ethical consideration for nonhumans (or lack thereof, according to the author) and what amounted to a cursory, one-sentence nod to the contributions of the post–Civil War antivivisection movement . Furthering my dismay, the article focused primarily on what the author characterized as a “new movement” to “afford some genuine legal rights for animals.”1 But neither the movement for “genuine” legal recognition of nonhumans nor any one of the current issues detailed in that article is a new phenomenon. Granted, the author’s intent was not to study the past, but the article’s ahistorical perspective exemplifies a broader trend of omission that extends from popular conceptions to academia. When it comes to the animal advocacy movement, a historical amnesia effec2 RESURRECTING THE VOICE You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. tively erases the significant legacies today’s animal activists and society as a whole have inherited from their mostly forgotten predecessors. As we stumble uncertainly into the twenty-first century, this intriguing social justice cause marks nearly 140 years of persistent and diverse activism. In April 1866, Henry Bergh, buttressed by the support of a prominent group of New York men and women, chartered the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). At the end of the society ’s first meeting, he proudly declared that the verdict had been rendered : “The blood-red hand of cruelty shall no longer torture dumb beasts with impunity.”2 His prediction was a bit overconfident, but his organization heralded the genesis of a definable, organized animal advocacy movement in the United States. Since then, the cause has grown steadily and attracted an enthusiastic following. By the turn of the twentieth century, nearly seven hundred organizations, most molded in the image of Bergh’s ASPCA, combated cruelty across the country.3 Changes in post–World War II society provided fertile ground for greater growth, and by 1967, the number ballooned to one thousand groups, with a collective membership in the millions.4 After the 1975 publication of Peter Singer’s seminal treatise, Animal Liberation, the movement experienced a veritable organizational explosion. Currently, over seven thousand organizations, representing well over ten million members, lobby, agitate, and educate on issues concerning the rights and treatment...

Share