The Welfare of Performing Animals

This timely book describes and analyses a neglected area of the history of concern for animal welfare, discussing the ends and means of the capture, transport, housing and training of performing animals, as well as the role of pressure groups, politics, the press and vested interests. It examines primary source material of considerable interdisciplinary interest, and addresses the influence of scientific and veterinary opinion and the effectiveness of proposals for supervisory legislation, noting the current international status and characteristics of present-day practice within the commercial sector.

Animal performance has a long history, and at the beginning of the twentieth century this aspect of popular entertainment became the subject not just of a major public controversy but also of prolonged British parliamentary attention to animal welfare.

Following an assessment of the use of trained animals in the more distant historical past, the book charts the emergence ofcriticism and analyses the arguments and evidence used by the opponents and proponents in Britain from the early twentieth century to the present, noting comparable events in the United States and elsewhere.

• animal exhibition
• animal welfare
• history of animal performance
• performing animals
• policy of animal performance
• Fish and Wildlife Biology

“This book makes a valuable contribution to animal studies. It investigates the social and political processes concerned with the welfare of performing animals in Britain from the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. … Drawing on highly detailed research, this book provides a comprehensive account of the individuals and organisations that campaigned against animal performance and its cruelties and, in turn, those who campaigned for its continuation.” (Peta Tait, Animal Studies Journal, Vol. 5 (1), 2016)

“A comprehensive history of human attitudes and actions in relation to the welfare of performing animals from Roman times to the present day. As such, it reveals a great deal about human behavior; attitudes that evolve, attitudes that never change and the motivations that lie behind what we say, write and do. … It has been meticulously researched and it is very well written. It is also thought-provoking.” (John Webster, Animal Welfare, Vol. 24 (3), August, 2015)

• School of History, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

  David A. H. Wilson

Policies and ethics