Woman's Responsibility Toward the Animal Creation (1895)

AUTHOR: Lovell, Mary Frances

KEYWORDS: animal welfare, education, women

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

This is a paper that Lovell originally “read at the Atlanta Exposition” (183), the Cotton States and International Exposition held in Atlanta in September 1895. Lovell disparages the notion of the "new woman" as “a nebulous something,” which may denote anything from “the Spartan creature who foregoes fashion” to “the anomaly who apes all mannish things,” from “the unnatural hater of children and adorer of cats and dogs” to “the freak who does not think marriage her only goal” and “only the woman who wants to vote” (183). Lovell suggests women's focus should be on “kindness.” According to her, “the lack of kindness” constitutes the “most woeful lack in all the world to-day” (183). Hence “why Mrs. A. can have her soul quite racked by the rude abruptness of Mrs. B.'s manner the last time they met, though she may not be at all concerned on reading the printed account of the method of obtaining the pretty aigrette with which her bonnet is adorned” (183-184). Lovell deems such “wounded amour propre” a “misplaced tenderness” (184). What is needed instead is altruism, the rule of “the law of kindness” (184).

Thus, Lovell insists that “[w]omen cannot escape accountability in their relations to animals.” “Not only,” she continues, “is great cruelty perpetrated directly for their gratification, but there is also much which they could prevent by simply objecting to it” (184). As an example, Lovell mentions the practice of “docking horses,” which she describes as follows:

The barbarous operation, a veritable vivisection, causing the creature to leap and scream in agony, is done perhaps at the suggestion of some ignorant or unfeeling coachman or groom, who wants his horses to look stylish, and his mistress, who shares the silly ambition, but who ought to be the protector of her poor dumb servants, complacently permits the perpetration of a deed which it is not too much to call dastardly. And this same woman will, when they begin to grow old, allow the unfortunate creatures to be sold without lifting a finger. Then begins their downward career. Hard work, and, as time goes on, neglect and ill-treatment. Covered with dust and dirt, weary, perhaps parched with thirst, they toil under the lash in the broiling sun; to this is added the exquisite torture of flies which cling and bite; and the deformed stump of what was nature's protection, a tail, moves to and fro in futile efforts for relief. Imagine, if you can, the torment. A creature with a nervous organization as fine as your own, after faithful service, made to suffer so cruelly in his age and weakness. And for what? That you may appear, as you think, stylish (184).

Lovell indicts women for their “neglect in the training of their children” (184) because the “tendency, so prevalent in children, to find fun in the distress and alarm of creatures more helpless than themselves is always an evil one, and ought to be discouraged. But the woman who provides her child with whips and guns fosters it” (185). Instead of teaching “the lessons of gentleness and pity” women encourage “indifference” and “suffering” (185). In this context, Lovell vehemently argues against “allowing children to have pets” because often the “mother in such a family appears to regard these creatures as conveniently animated material invented by the Creator for the amusement of her children, not as beings for the welfare of which she is responsible, and through which she may teach valuable lessons of thoughtfulness and consideration” (185).

Rehearsing the ill-treatment of birds, dogs, cats, and expounding on “the cruel bull-fights in Southern California,” Lovell concludes that much of America is in “a semi-barbarous condition” (186). Woman's task is to rectify this situation. To do so, she needs to self-educate: “The typical woman of our time is the woman who wants reform. Let her be careful to reform herself and also to inform herself; and especially concerning those amendments of manners which bear relation to the expression of loving pity, that nobler prototype of the modern altruism” (186). She would then, for example, be much more vocal against vivisection, “the extremest form of cruelty conceivable” (186). Minimally, women should “at least obtain information and impart it to others” (187).

Quoting Henry Drummond's Ascent of Man, Lovell presents a panoply of emotions and affects of which animals are capable. For Lovell, the mere fact that animals can suffer requires our kindness. “The conclusion of the whole matter,” she writes, “is that animals need our kind care and tender mercy, and that it is their right” (187). For ultimately, “[t]he right of the speechless sentient being to be saved is based on the same cause as our own right – that he can feel pain” (188). Women should make sure that this right is heeded everywhere and at all times.