Cruelty to animals
Animal cruelty is the willful or wanton infliction of pain, suffering, or death upon animals or the intentional or malicious neglect of animals by human beings. Intensive and widespread cruelty to animals has been attributed to the operation of animal farms, or “factory farms,” in which animals are typically confined in small warehouses or tiny stalls and fed specialized diets to speed their weight gain. Another form of animal cruelty, as recognized in many countries, is the willful destruction of endangered species, mainly through the elimination of habitats needed for survival. And some people have contended that hunting animals simply for fun is also a form of animal cruelty.
Perhaps the world’s first anticruelty law, which addressed the treatment of domesticated animals, was included in the legal code of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1641); similar legislation was passed in Britain in 1822. The world’s first animal welfare society, the Society for the Protection of Animals, was established in England in 1824, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was chartered in 1866.
The protection of endangered species became a common concern in many countries in the 20th century, as reflected in the passage of the Endangered Species Preservation Act in the United States in 1966. Such legislation gave further impetus to anticruelty movements as a whole.
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Although many anticruelty laws have been passed, they are not regularly enforced, and their effectiveness usually requires significant public pressure. Notably, factory farming, despite its evidently cruel practices, has remained mostly exempt from legal scrutiny. Nevertheless, some governments have restricted factory farming in their own territories. In 2018, for example, voters in the state of California approved a proposition banning the local sale of products taken from animals “confined in a cruel manner.” The rule was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. See also animal rights.