Animals of Britain in Centuries Past

History has forgotten the shocking cruelties unleashed on the animals of Britain in centuries past. But their grim legacy remains in the language we speak.

The word “cockpit” originally referred to the spaces where chickens fought each other to the death. “Bulldogs” – ancestors of today’s pit bulls – attacked enraged bulls in front of bloodthirsty crowds of peasants and aristocrats.

Even the word “hangdog,” now used to describe facial expressions, traces its origin to the unhappy fate of canines put on trial.

While many people adored their house pets just as they do now, few cared about the horrors unleashed on animals in a place considered “the world’s cruelest country.”

But then humanity began to develop a heart. People started to see animals as something more than property. And cruelty ceased to be seen as a personal right.

“The rescued dogs, cats, rabbits and horses who live with so many of us today ultimately owe their survival” to British reformers, writes Kathryn Shevelow in For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement.

These men and women, she writes, “forced the law for the first time to become responsive to the plight of animals.”