Cruelty to Animals Act 1876

Last updated

Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 [1]
Act of Parliament
Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (2022, variant 1).svg
Long title An Act to amend the Law relating to Cruelty to Animals.
Citation 39 & 40 Vict. c. 77
Territorial extent 
  • England and Wales
  • Northern Ireland
  • Republic of Ireland
Dates
Royal assent 15 August 1876
Other legislation
Amended by Summary Jurisdiction Act 1884
Repealed by Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986
Status: Repealed

The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 77) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which set limits on the practice of, and instituted a licensing system for animal experimentation, amending the Cruelty to Animals Act 1849. It was a public general Act. The Act was replaced 110 years later by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

Contents

The Act

A perception that the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 was weak led to a libel suit, the erection of this monument to a vivisected "brown dog", and riots by medical students in 1907 Original-brown-dog-statue.jpg
A perception that the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 was weak led to a libel suit, the erection of this monument to a vivisected "brown dog", and riots by medical students in 1907

The Act stipulated that researchers would be prosecuted for cruelty, unless they conformed to its provisions, which required that an experiment involving the infliction of pain upon animals to only be conducted when "the proposed experiments are absolutely necessary for the due instruction of the persons [so they may go on to use the instruction] to save or prolong human life". [2]

Furthermore, the Act stated that should the experiment occur, the animal must be anaesthetised, used only once (though several procedures regarded as part of the same experiment were permitted), and killed as soon as the study was over. [2] Prosecutions under the Act could be made only with the approval of the Secretary of State. [3] The Act was applicable to vertebrate animals only.

History and controversy

Opposition to vivisection had led the government to set up a Royal Commission on Vivisection in July 1875, which recommended that legislation be enacted to control it. This Act was created as a result, but was criticized by National Anti-Vivisection Society  – itself founded in December 1875 – as "infamous but well-named," in that it made no provision for public accountability of licensing decisions. The law remained in force for 110 years, until it was replaced by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, [4] which is the subject of similar criticism from the modern animal rights movement.

Such was the perceived weakness of the Act, that vivisection opponents chose, on at least one occasion – the Brown Dog affair  – to incite a libel suit rather than seek a prosecution under the Act.[ citation needed ]

Penalties

The Act states, in part:

Any person performing or taking part in performing any experiment calculated to give pain, in contravention of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall, if it be the first offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and if it be the second or any subsequent offence, be liable, at the discretion of the court by which he is tried, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales which promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest animal welfare organisation in the world, and is one of the largest charities in the UK. The organisation also does international outreach work across Europe, Africa and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivisection</span> Experimental surgery

Vivisection is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experimentation on live animals by organizations opposed to animal experimentation, but the term is rarely used by practicing scientists. Human vivisection, such as live organ harvesting, has been perpetrated as a form of torture.

Cruelty Free International is a British animal rights and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal testing. It organises certification of cruelty-free products which are marked with the symbol of a leaping bunny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Animals Act 1986, sometimes referred to as ASPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in 1986, which regulates the use of animals used for research in the UK. The Act permits studies to be conducted using animals for procedures such as breeding genetically modified animals, medical and veterinary advances, education, environmental toxicology and includes procedures requiring surgery, if certain criteria are met. Revised legislation came into force on 1 January 2013. The original act related to the 1986 EU Directive 86/609/EEC which was updated and replaced by EU Directive 2010/63/EU

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offences Against the Person Act 1861</span> UK criminal statute

The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, incorporating subsequent statutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Coleridge</span> British lawyer and writer (1854–1936)

Stephen William Buchanan Coleridge was an English author, barrister, opponent of vivisection, and co-founder of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Anti-Vivisection Society</span> Animal protection organization

The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is an international non-profit animal protection group, based in London, working to end animal testing, and focused on the replacement of animals in research with advanced, scientific techniques. Since 2006, the NAVS has operated its international campaigns under the working name Animal Defenders International (ADI), and the two groups now work together under the ADI name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown Dog affair</span> British political controversy, 1903–1910

The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection that raged in Britain from 1903 until 1910. It involved the infiltration of University of London medical lectures by Swedish feminists, battles between medical students and the police, police protection for the statue of a dog, a libel trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, and the establishment of a Royal Commission to investigate the use of animals in experiments. The affair became a cause célèbre that divided the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lizzy Lind af Hageby</span> Swedish-British feminist and animal rights activist

Emilie Augusta Louise "Lizzy" Lind af Hageby was a Swedish-British feminist and animal rights advocate who became a prominent anti-vivisection activist in England in the early 20th century.

Polygamous marriages may not be performed in the United Kingdom, and if a polygamous marriage is performed, the already-married person may be guilty of the crime of bigamy under section 11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Official Secrets Act 1920</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Official Secrets Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libel Act 1843</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Libel Act 1843, commonly known as Lord Campbell's Libel Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It enacted several important codifications of and modifications to the common law tort of libel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punishment of Offences Act 1837</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Punishment of Offences Act 1837 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It abolished the death penalty for a number of statutory offences and replaced it with transportation for life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piracy Act 1850</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Piracy Act 1850, sometimes called the Pirates Repeal Act 1850, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It relates to proceedings for the condemnation of ships and other things taken from pirates and creates an offence of perjury in such proceedings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal Justice Administration Act 1851</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Criminal Justice Administration Act 1851 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forgery of Foreign Bills Act 1803</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Forgery of Foreign Bills Act 1803 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Prior to its repeal in 2013, it created offences of forgery of foreign instruments in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perjury Act 1911</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Perjury Act 1911 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates the offence of perjury and a number of similar offences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom originally aimed at continuing and extending the provisions of the Aliens Restriction Act 1914, and the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 and to deal with former enemy aliens after the end of the World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal Procedure Act 1851</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Criminal Procedure Act 1851 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was drafted by Charles Sprengel Greaves. Stephen said that compared to earlier legislation on defects in indictments, the Criminal Procedure Act 1851 "went further in the way of removing technicalities, but it did so by an enumeration of them, so technical and minute, that no one could possibly understand it who had not first acquainted himself with all the technicalities which it was meant to abolish."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prosecution of Offences Act 1879</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Prosecution of Offences Act 1879 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Prosecution of Offences Acts 1879 to 1908.

References

  1. The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of this Act. Due to the repeal of this Act, it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
  2. 1 2 Kean, Hilda. "An Exploration of the Sculptures of Greyfriars Bobby, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Brown Dog, Battersea, South London, England," Society and Animals, Volume 1, Number 4, December 2003, pp. 353–373.
  3. Mason, Peter. The Brown Dog Affair. Two Sevens Publishing, 1997, p.10
  4. "The history of the NAVS" Archived 18 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine , retrieved 4 December 2007.