Animal welfare in modern British history

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25770270
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2014-2015); Kanazawa Gakuin University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: Ito Takashi 東京外国語大学, 大学院総合国際学研究院, 講師 (10611080)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 国際情報交換 / イギリス / 文化史 / 社会史 / 都市史 / 動物福祉 / 動物倫理 / 動物観

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project revisited the rise of animal welfare movements in nineteenth-century Britain, exploring how the idea of protecting animals from unjustified cruelty became embedded into a variety of social practicies and institutions. It has demonstrated that, while animals came to be exploited for research purposes as well as for economic activities, an increasing number of people became aware of animal cruelty, contemplating the ideal relationships between human and nonhuman animals. Debate over the ethics of animal use often polarized the public at large, especially in face of anti-vivisectionism in the 1870-80s, but by the beginning of the twentieth century, animal welfare entered the mainstream of social concerns and political agendas.

Free Research Field

イギリス近代史