easts. With this limitation the
rights of domesticated animals began to exist.

At first sight it may seem unreasonable to found the rights of dumb
beasts on the embodiment of public opinion in the law, and this for
the reasons that many persons have held, that rights have an
establishment in the ultimate moral constitution of the world. It may
be granted that even before man or even life existed in the universe
there were certain logical moral principles which were destined to
take shape when the creatures to which they were adapted came to be;
but such speculations are fanciful and do not much concern those who
are dealing with the problems of the barnyard. We may, to bring the
matter nearer, say that the slave of half a century ago had a right to
be free; but this right, in all practical senses, meant only that
certain people very much disliked to see him enthralled.

So far, by successive stages, first by accumulated public opinion and
then by its embodiment in statutes, we have won a measure of protection
to subjugated animals which tends to save them from the extremer forms
of cruelty. The question now is as to the advances which may be made in
the time to come. It is evident that these advances, so far as the
domesticated species are concerned, will have to be limited by the needs
of man. We cannot ever expect to have the reverence of the Hindoo for
the lower animals, for the reason that his state of mind is based on the
preposterous supposition that the beast contains the spirit of a man on
its way through the cycles towards perfection. We must continue to
burthen, tax, and slay; but we may fairly be required to inflict no
unnecessary suffering. In this process of amendment we shall undoubtedly
before long come to the point where we shall demand that these animals
shall be lodged in a wholesome manner and so fed that they may be fit
for their tasks. We may, in a word, consider their well being so far as
it is consistent with the well being of mankind, and in so doing we
shall demand some personal sacrifice from the owner where such is
clearly demanded to maintain the principle of the law.

As in all other great sympathetic movements, the leaders of the advance
in the matter of the humane treatment of animals are occasionally
unreasonable in their demands--it may well be held that the prophet has
to be unreasonable in order to attain his goal; hence it has come about
that the demands of these admirable people a