The AR movement

Where did it come from? Where is it now and where is it going?

Part 1: AR Timeline

4000BC Noah selects two of each species and saves them from the flood by building an Ark

1800 First anti-cruelty bill introduced in Britain to stop bullbaiting.

1822 Second anti-cruelty bill passed to prevent cruelty to large domestic animals introduced by Colonel Richard Martin.

1824 Colonel Richard Martin organised the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help enforce the law.

1840 Queen Victoria commanded the addition of the prefix "Royal" to the Society.

1860 First Animal Welfare Act passed in the USA

1866 Henry Bergh organised an SPCA in New York.

1871 a Parisian, Louis Bonard, died and left $150,000 to the New York SPCA.

1873 SPCAs and Humane Societies spring up across the states following a lecture tour by Henry Bergh.

1877 The AHA, American Humane Association, founded with divisions for both animals and children.

1883 First anti-vivisection Society formed.

1890s Anti vivisection movement grows in strength on both sides of the Atlantic

1890s Audobon Society founded to focus on the protection of wildlife.

1920s Use of draft animals declines as Ford floods the market with cheap cars.

1940s and 50s Use of animals in agriculture declines with the widespread use of the tractor. Keeping of domestic pets increases considerably.

1954 AHA splits and the HSUS, Humane Society of the United States is formed.

1955 SAPL, Society for Animal Protective Legislation formed.

1958 First federal Humane Slaughter Act passed.

1959 Precurser to the International Society for Animal Rights formed

1960s Humane societies flourish with the ever expanding base of pet lovers.. Many run shelters and some offer access to animal healthcare.

1966 Laboratory Animal Welfare Act passed.

1967 Fund for Animals set up by Clevland Amory

1968 Animal Protection Institute formed by Belton Muras, a former member of HSUS.

1969 Endangered Species Act passed.

1970 the Horse Protection Act passed.

1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act passed.

1972 Band of Mercy formed in Britain, later to morph into the ALF, Animal Liberation Front.

1973 International Primate Protection League formed by Shirley McGreal.

1975 Peter Singer writes Animal Liberation and coins the term "speciesism"

1976 Led by Henry Spira, 400 groups join together and demonstrate against animal experimentation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

1977 The tests stop and the laboratories are dismantled.

1980 Peter Singer and Jim Mason publish Animal Factories.

1980 Ingrid Newkirk and Alexs Pachero found Peta

1981 Animal Legal Defense Fund organized by Joyce Tischler

1983 Tom Regan writes The Case for Animal Rights

1987 Tom Regan writesThe Struggle for Animal Rights

1987 Revlon agreed to stop animal testing and contributed millions of dollars to alternate research.

1995 New fur law was passed. Any country who exports fur to Europe must either ban leg hold traps or adopt international humane trapping standards.

1999 SHAC, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty started in the UK.

2003 Ban on animal testing in the EU cosmetic industry after a 13-year campaign led by the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments.

2005 British guinea pig breeding facility closes down after 6 year campaign by AR culminating in the exhumation of Gladys Hammond, Christopher Hall's mother-in-law, from a nearby churchyard. The body has never been found

2007 Ban on horse slaughter for human consumption in the USA

To be continued.....