An Anthropozoonet (1882)
AUTHOR: Bergh, Henry
PUBLICATION: “An Anthropozoonet.” Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture Vol. XLI no. 42 (15 Jul 1882): 4 (col. 7)
https://archive.org/details/sim_massachusetts-ploughman-new-england-journal-agriculture_1882-07-15_41_42/page/n3/mode/2up
Reprinted from the Chicago Tribune.
KEYWORDS: animals, animal welfare
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SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):
This short humorous poem advocates for kindness towards animals. The poem explicitly mentions herring, calf, bunny, barnacles, monkey, bear, hare, jelly fish, lobsters, crabs, cuttlefish, dabs, chochin-china [sic; cochin chicken], ox, geese, tadpole, limpet, mussels, eels, and the turtle. The speaker of the poem implores the reader to “Speak gently […] and kindly” to all animals, feed them properly, “give the stranded jelly fish a shove into the / sea,” be lenient, respectful, and not chase any animals.
In relation to the consumption of animals and animal products, the speaker advises that one “babble not of feather beds in company with / geese”; and certainly “don't skin your eels / alive.” In short, “be always kind to animals wherever you may be,” as the poem's refrain has it.