| First opened my eyes to the savagery of my 7) y y Z c \ N N NY ~ NJ WAS y WK immediate influence of a Dr William Lambe and the ne ae a amd adda SG aN aw He was writing on the eve of the foundation of the mass societies for animal concern that have come to prominence during the PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Stephen Hunt examines Shelley’s contribution to the basis of the Victorian animal welfare movement specia ytibute to this fore an, It was Shelley who they endure: chickens are imprisoned and 16 The Ve‘mutated until they fatten, ealves are bled 10 death that ther lesh may appear white: andl a certain horrible process of torture furnishes brawn for glutionous repasts with whieh Christians celeb wersary of their Saviour’s birth.” Shelley is perhaps the most important {example ofa new sensibility that was emer ing towards the welfare of animals and the natural world, He was writing on the eve of the foun jes for ‘mal concern that have come to prominence daring the twentieth century. The RSPCA was formed in 1824 and the Vegetarian Society in 1847, The new atfitudes towards wild animals were partly prompted by the Fact that the environment in which they lived ‘vas more vulnerable than ever before. AL the same time, an important consequence of the mide n agricul ture was that it enabled a far larger domestic animal population to be Kept than ever before. For many, regular fresh meat became an affordable commodity that was available fir the first time, The ‘standard? meat-and- ion of the mass soc itcenth century revolution a much sat industry would have us believe. The scale and fre ‘queney of slaughter was increased with con- Also, Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions had ereated a more turban society which lessened the contact that recent innovation than the 1 sumption, e COUSIN TANYA HAS INVITED NE 7 AN IMPROMPTD DINNER. PARTS, "BRING A PIE, AND,VLL SUPPLS “HE VEGETABLES, SHE SAID. LUCKY THERES A LATE NisHT SUPERMARKET ONTHE WAY. A UK! TM NOT HAT DESPERATE !! He articulated the now familiar argument that animal husbandry is an extremely inefficient means of producing protein people had with lives and a jimals in their everyday ‘was instrumental in creating & more ur ‘concer for what was disappearing and be lost ‘Inferior’ Species ‘After 1789, few Tone voices were extendin the demands of the French Revolution, for the rights of man and woman, to plea forth his of othe! favourite with Shelley, had attacked the ‘ld idea ofthe Great Chain of Being, that put all of Creation from rocks up to angels into a hierarchy, as merely a convenient pretext for social inequality in the human sphere. As this doctrine became less popular in philosophi- cal fashion it could no longer be automat cally invoked as a justification fori the sensibilities of “inferior” species. Shelley is also a significant forerunner of the modern animal sued for the economic benefits of an species. Voltaire, a great this movement in that agriculture that produces food for av n diet. He articulated the now familiar iment that husbandry isan extremely inefficient means of produ protcin, Shelley found that this was another way in whieh the huswa of the diet dovetailed perfectly with his other ns for social reform, He firmly ccampai belived that self-sufficiency in food pro- {duction would be an all important frst step towards liberation for the labouring classes There is a misleading popular image of Shelley as a frail counterpart to the more physical Byron (who himself experimented with a vegetable diet) sulated in Matthew Arnold's description of ‘an “ineffectual angel”. However, the tle doubt that Shelley was 4 man of consid. erable energy, stamina and vitality, His nporary, Thornton Hunt once testified that his poete friend would often walk more than thirty miles into London in a day and ‘would habitually spend in excess of sixteen hours a day studying and writing, Whether Shelley would have channelled such energy ito the fledgling Vietorian animal welfare ‘movement (ike his admirer and fellow exile in haly, Browning), we know no more than sve know ofthe poetic potential that he c ried with him beneath the waves off the coast of Viareggio, where he drowned in 1822. neap. © MRK TATHER 100KS. eS | fs = ‘AeA! FROZEN PIE’ “SUITABLE FOR, VEGETARIANS: aS ra “HIS ONES VEGAN... "MADE WITH SOSA UT | IT LOOKS, TASTES , SMELLS AND FEELS LIKE MEAT!!! PROMISING! SSS WHY ON EARTH HAVE HONESTLY, WHAT'S WRONG Win THESE COMPANIES 2 THEY COULD EASILY MAKE THEIR VEGGIE PES VEGAN AND INCREASE SALES! SEEMS To ME THEY SHOULD@O BACK To MARKETING- THEY PUT EGG NIT? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEXT TIME LL MAKE Mi OWN PIE! AND, INTHE MEANTIME READERS, WH NOT’ SENDA COPY OF THIS CABTEON STRIP “TO MANUFACTURERS OF NON-VEGAN VESGIE PIES EVER YNNERE? ‘90d Ida! he Veg, Spring 1098