The Cow and the Plow: Animal Suffering, Human Guilt, and the Crime of Cruelty

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Studies in Law, Politics, and Society

ISSN: 1059-4337
Series editor(s): Professor Austin Sarat

Subject Area: Sociology and Public Policy

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Document Information:
Title:	The Cow and the Plow: Animal Suffering, Human Guilt, and the Crime of Cruelty
Author(s):	Susan J. Pearson
Volume:	36 Editor(s): Matthew Anderson ISBN: 978-0-76231-189-7 eISBN: 978-1-84950-334-1
Citation:	Susan J. Pearson (2005), The Cow and the Plow: Animal Suffering, Human Guilt, and the Crime of Cruelty, in Matthew Anderson (ed.) Toward a Critique of Guilt: Perspectives from Law and the Humanities (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 36), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.77-101
DOI:	10.1016/S1059-4337(05)36005-4 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	Nineteenth-century animal protectionists endeavored to frame laws that gave animals direct legal protections, and they conducted large-scale public education campaigns to define the harm of cruelty to animals in terms of animals’ own suffering. However, animal suffering was only one of the many possible definitions of cruelty's harms, and when judges and other legal interpreters interpreted animal protection laws, they focused less on animal suffering and more on human morality and the dangers of cruelty to human society. Battling over the definition of human guilt for cruelty, protectionists and judges drew and redrew the boundaries of the law's reach and the moral community.