Animal Activists

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Animal Activists
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Saving animals

• Mary Wollstonecraft 1700s
• Original Stories from Real Life
• Shows bad boy breaking birds legs and the evil
  fate he suffers until he learns to be kind
• Conduct books

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Anne Bronte Agnes Grey

• Brontë depicts scenes of cruelty towards animals,
  as well as degrading treatment of Agnes.
• Parallels have been drawn between the oppression
  of these two groups-animals and females-that are
  "beneath" the upper class human male.2
• Agnes tries to impart in her charges the ability
  to empathize with others.

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Anne Bronte Agnes Gray

• Agnes Grey (1847)
• Governess teaches wild children to respect nature
• Morals, conduct taught during story
• Sister wrote Jane Eyre (also about governess
  treatment

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Society for the Protection of Birds

• Mrs. Robert Williams England
• Held meeting/ teas to tell women about the rapid
  decline of the egret due to womens fashionable
  hats
• Eliza Philips started Fur, Fin and Feathers
  Society, eventually merged with Society for the
  Protection of Birds
• Bird Notes and News
• Sea Bird Protection Act 1869 saved England
  shorebirds but began import of almost a million
  birds from Asia, India and South America

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Philips and Lemon cont

• 1891 Destruction of Ornamental Plumaged Birds
• Sent to Queen, who sent a note back that she was
  already aware of the problem
• Tried to shame women into giving up fashion to
  save birds
• Non-scientific approach

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Saving the birds

• Counter to commerce of the day feathers
• Hunters
• Processor
• Millinery (hat makers)
• Public speech in 1903
• When it is too late, men and women will discover
  what a poor, worthless, uninhabitable place this
  world is without the birds

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The Pledge

• Margareta Lemon, worked with Philips, wrote
  articles cartoons showing cruelty of hat
  fashions for birds
• Made members sign pledge
• discourage the use of live animals, refrain
  from wearing feathers
• Note church goers wearing feathers, sent notes
  telling them how many birds died to make their
  hats.

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History of bird feather use

• http//americanhistory.si.edu/feather/index.htm
• "WINGS, BREASTS BIRDS"
• by Joanne Haug, fashion editor
• "The entire bird is used, and is mounted on wires
  and springs that permit the head and wings to be
  moved about in the most natural manner." Harper's
  Bazaar, 1875
• http//www.riverjunction.com/
• http//www.victoriana.com/Victorian-Hats/birdhats.
  htm

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Hats fans
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White feathers
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Sample of Birds affected

• Snowy egret
• Tumpeter swan (down to 69 birds in 1930s)
• White Pelicans
• Whooping Cranes
• Ostrich
• herons

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Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

• United States legislation implementing the
  convention between the U.S. and Great Britain
  (for Canada). It replaced the Weeks-McLean Act,
  which had become effective in 1913.
• The United States subsequently entered into
  similar agreements with four other nations
  (Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia) to protect
  migratory birds.
• The statute makes it unlawful to pursue, hunt,
  take, capture, kill or sell birds listed therein
  ("migratory birds"). The statute does not
  discriminate between live or dead birds and also
  grants full protection to any bird parts
  including feathers, eggs and nests.
• Over 800 species are currently on the list.
• http//www.birdiq.com/learn/laws.html

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For the Animals

• Frances Power Cobbe (mid 1800s)
• Crusaded for women animals
• Helped pass the Married Womens Property Act of
  1870
• Against vivisection and cruelty to lab animals
  (hero of current PETA groups)
• Wrote several books and articles
• The New Morality sensitivity to pain of animals
  recognized.

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The National Anti-vivisection Society

• Formed in 1921, US
• http//www.navs.org/site/PageServer?pagenameindex
  
• 1. What is vivisection?
• 2. How do they propose to change science to
  avoid vivisection
• 3. What is the controversy? Why are people so
  upset about this?
• 4. What are some of the problems with
  vivisection?
• 5. What are the solutions?
• 6. What do you think about it?
• 7. What do you think the future will hold for
  this practice (will we develop alternatives
  why?)

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Animal rights

• Sarah Grand The Beth Book
• Cruelty and indifference to animals tied to
  cruelty to women
• World of men portrayed as insensitive, uncaring
• Must change both men and womens attitude toward
  each other animals

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Anna Sewell Black Beauty

• Mistreatment and insensitivity to animals was
  common in the 1800s. 
• Several authors were using fiction literature
  for children to teach morals and ethics. 
• Conduct book