The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 ( 39 & 40 Vict. c. 77.) was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

which set limits on the practice of, and instituted a licensing system for

animal experimentation Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This ...

, amending the

Cruelty to Animals Act 1849 The Cruelty to Animals Act 1849The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpre ...

. It was a

public general Act In the United Kingdom an act of Parliament is primary legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. An act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

. The Act was replaced 110 years later by the

Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, sometimes referred to as ASPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1986 c. 14) passed in 1986, which regulates the use of animals used for research in the UK. The Act permits studies t ...

The Act

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 o they may go on to use the instructionto save or prolong human life". 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.

Kean, Hilda Hilda Kean (born August 1949) is a British historian who specialises in public and cultural history, and in particular the cultural history of animals. She is former Dean and Director of Public History at Ruskin College, Oxford, and an Honora ...

. "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. Prosecutions under the Act could be made only with the approval of the Secretary of State.Mason, Peter. ''The Brown Dog Affair''. Two Sevens Publishing, 1997, p.10 The Act was applicable to

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

animals only.

History and controversy

Opposition to

vivisection 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 experiment ...

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 The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is an international not-for-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. S ...

– 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

,"The history of the NAVS"
, retrieved 4 December 2007. which is the subject of similar criticism from the modern

animal rights movement The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

. Such was the perceived weakness of the Act, that vivisection opponents chose, on at least one occasion – the

Brown Dog affair 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 ...

– to incite a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suit rather than seek a prosecution under the Act.

Penalties

The Act states, in part:

References

*Halsbury's Statutes of England. (The Complete Statutes of England). First Edition. Butterworth and Co (Publishers) Ltd. 1929. Volume 1

Page 367. Third Edition. 1968
Volume 2
Page 222. Cumulative Supplement
Part 1
1985. Paragraph for page 221. *John Mounteney Lely. The Statutes of Practical Utility. (Chitty's Statutes). Fifth Edition. Sweet and Maxwell. Stevens and Sons. London. 1894. Volume 1. Title "Animals". Page
12
to 17. *Paterson, William. The Practical Statutes of the Session 1876. Page
245
to 255. *Coleridge, Bernard. Commentary on the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876. Victoria Street and International Society for the Protection of Animals from Vivisection. Victoria Street London. 1896
Google Books
Reprinted from the Zoophillist as chapter 23 of "The Anti-vivisection Question". *Coleridge, Stephen, "The Administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876" (1900
67
Fortnightly Review 392 (No 399
March
*"The First Conviction under the Vivisection Act" (1876) 61 The Law Time
382
(7 October)

External links

accessed 12 May 2010. {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1876 Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament Cruelty to animals Animal welfare and rights legislation in the United Kingdom Animal testing in the United Kingdom Anti-vivisection movement

The Act

History and controversy

Penalties

See also

References

External links