They rescued mutilated dogs, prosecuted bull baiters and denounced the slaughter of exotic birds. As the RSPCA marks its 200th anniversary, Helen Cowie reveals how campaigners took the fight to animal abusers in the 19th century
In June 1849, Tempest Fletcher, a greengrocer from York Street, London, appeared before magistrates charged with “cutting and maiming a dog of the St Bernard breed, the property of Mr Gibbs, a gentleman residing in Plummer’s-row, City-road”. According to Mr Thomas, secretary to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the dog had “stopped in front of the defendant’s shop for the purpose of nature”, whereupon Fletcher, “who was trimming some rhubarb with a knife, rushed up to it and ripped it up from the flank to the tail”. The resulting injury was horrific, occasioning “a sickening sensation, and cries of ‘shame, shame’” when the wounded dog was exhibited in court. Convinced that Fletcher’s conduct had been “very cruel”, magistrate Mr Tywhitt ruled in favour of the prosecution, fining Fletcher “40s and costs”.
The conviction of Tempest Fletcher was one of many successful prosecutions brought by the RSPCA in its early years. Following its foundation in 1824 to police the world’s first ever animal welfare law (the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, 1822), the society set about taking action on behalf of Britain’s animals – ranging from mutilated dogs and baited bulls to brutalised peacocks.
It’s perhaps no surprise that the RSPCA emerged in the early 19th century. This was, after all, a moment in British history that witnessed the rise of a new breed of moral reformer: evangelical humanitarians who viewed animal cruelty as a stain on the British character. Campaigners such as the abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton, Reverend Arthur Broome (the RSPCA’s first secretary), and Richard Martin, the MP for County Galway who had shepherded the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act through parliament in 1822, were determined to shine a spotlight on the issue of animal welfare. And that determination led to the creation of an organisation that, they believed, would act as both an enforcer and an educator.
A brutal authority
In an era when animal cruelty was rife, these early campaigners encountered resistance, ridicule and occasionally violence. But that didn’t stop
