Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 398 pages
- Published by: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. April 30, 2010
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1886363528
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1886363526
-
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
Product Description
Evans, E.P. The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1906. x, 384pp. Reprinted 1998 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 98-12801. ISBN 1-886363-52-8. Cloth. $75.
* This pioneering work in English brings together an amazing assemblage of court cases in which animals have been named as defendants--chickens, rats, field mice, bees, gnats, and (in 34 recorded instances) pigs, among others--providing insight into such modern issues as animal rights, capital punishment, and social and criminal theory. Evans suggests an intriguing distinction between trials of specific animals or particular crimes (the ""murder"" of an infant by a pig, for example) and trials of animals for larger, catastrophic events such as plagues and infestations. In the latter case, Evans suggests a parallel to witchcraft.
Reader Reviews
Forgot to add this to my Amazon list of "The Most Subversive Works Imaginable" (so check those out too!). This book is just mind blowing. I read it while taking a "History of Witchcraft" class in college. Anyone interested in animal rights, the tyranny of the courts and the solopsistic nature of "civilized" religion will be intrigued. It will make you seriously question the current practice of putting to death circus elephants who run amok, or pit bills who kill children. Very chilling to think that we have not, in some basic sense, escaped our mediaeval antecedents. Written in 1906, the text is a bit footnote-stodgy scholarly, but Evans brings the thoughts of philosophers, religious reasoners, and scientific pundits to bear on Europe's animal trials and how these slaughtered sparrows, garetted geese, and hung horses helped humans distinguish themselves from the animals. FASCINATING!
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