The Decisive Century: The Emergence of the Kindness-to-Animals Ethic in the 1700s

Dr. Bernard Unti - Senior Policy Advisor, Humane Society of the United States

The sweep of events between 1693 and 1800, encompassing John Locke’s important warning about the implications of cruelty to animals, Hogarth’s “Four Stages of Cruelty,” the proliferation of children’s works encouraging kindness, and the stirrings of concern for animals under law, comprise "the decisive century" for the kindness-to-animals ethic.

Humane education, like the kindness ethic itself, predates the formal origins of animal protection. John Locke’s notable endorsement of the need to chastise animal cruelty, and his environmentalist theory of human development, marked a turning point. Hogarth’s captivating print series was an early form of social marketing to a public audience. An entire publishing industry devoted to children’s work emerged to more deeply embed humane values among the young. Finally, at the turn of the century, the first expressions of concern in any legislative body emerged. This was an era of ferment, and a foundational phase in the history of animal protection. In this session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of a signature period in the development of the kindness-to-animals ethic, one with deep implications for the education of children and the inculcation of the animal protection ethic.

About our Speaker:
Bernard Unti, PhD is Senior Policy Advisor and Special Assistant to the President & CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, and works on wide range of strategic, policy, program, and communications priorities. An historian by training, he is the author of, Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of the Humane Society of the United States (2004), and with Bill DeRosa, co-author of the 2003 essay, “Humane Education: Past, Present, and Future.” His interests include the evolution of human attitudes toward animals, the history and sociology of the animal protection movement, the development of petkeeping, animal sheltering, and the kindness-to-animals ethic, the humane education of children, and the place of animal protection within American philanthropy.

Links and Resources:

Humane Society

Protecting All Animals Book

Unti Article