For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United StatesAnimal rights. Those two words conjure diverse but powerful images and reactions. Some nod in agreement, while others roll their eyes in contempt. Most people fall somewhat uncomfortably in the middle, between endorsement and rejection, as they struggle with the profound moral, philosophical, and legal questions provoked by the debate. Today, thousands of organizations lobby, agitate, and educate the public on issues concerning the rights and treatment of nonhumans. For the Prevention of Cruelty is the first history of organized advocacy on behalf of animals in the United States to appear in nearly a half century. Diane Beers demonstrates how the cause has shaped and reshaped itself as it has evolved within the broader social context of the shift from an industrial to a postindustrial society. Until now, the legacy of the movement in the United States has not been examined. Few Americans today perceive either the companionship or the consumption of animals in the same manner as did earlier generations. Moreover, powerful and lingering bonds connect the seemingly disparate American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of the nineteenth century and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals of today. For the Prevention of Cruelty tells an intriguing and important story that reveals society’s often changing relationship with animals through the lens of those who struggled to shepherd the public toward a greater compassion. |
From inside the book
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... 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 ...
... society's perceptions of women's roles and socioeconomic realities. Even as the consensus society of the cold war era stressed women's responsibilities as wives and mothers, rising numbers of those family caretakers ventured into the ...
... society's worst abuses of nonhumans. Early successes, however, also sparked the problematic internal disagreements that have persistently haunted the movement. In particular, as humane arguments slowly but successfully permeated ...
... society's victimization of nature. In the unending quest for more resources, industrialization required the ... society away from its rural, agrarian roots. The lives of more and more Americans revolved around urban streets, not cow ...
... Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and promise to support it by every means in our power.”29 ... society's formation suggest that Muckle, Waln, and White acted independently and completely unaware of each other's ...
Contents
1 | |
19 | |
39 | |
59 | |
5 Reaching Out to the Mainstream | 91 |
6 Our Most Strenuous Protest | 119 |
7 The Road to Liberation | 147 |
Epilogue | 197 |
Notes | 203 |
Bibliography | 267 |
Index | 295 |