Last week we were entertained (and informed) by our resident polymath, Dr Bob Meroney by his talk Animal Crimes (which included cases brought against inanimate objects). A book by Edward Payson was published in 1903 covering the topic of animal (legal) rights. Legal proceedings against animals go back at least to the 1st century, peaked in the 16th century with a total of 200 count by the 19th century. In fact, cases are recorded in the Old Testament and continued through the 20th century. Whether animals can be tried is really a question of personhood. Do animals (especially intelligent species, some of which have observed social structure) qualify and thus have a right to a trial? Plato (400BC) argued a neighbor should be appointed a judge of even inanimate objects to determine if they should be exiled.
Nonetheless, one case in ancient Greece involving a javelin that accidentally killed a boy was tried (instead of the thrower) and punished (the javelin was thrown beyond the boundaries of the community). There are accounts from the Old Testament (Exodus) describing the various punishments appropriate when a bull gores a man to death (stoning of the bull for the first offense but stoning of the owner and the bull for multiple offenses). In another famous story from Greece an axe used to kill an offending ox was tried, found guilty and thrown into the sea. This event became an annual pageant for centuries where an axe was tried, and later the ox was eaten. A famous boxer (also in Greece) was so successful that it was said he had killed thousands of opponents. One of his enemies attacked his statue which fell on him and killed him. The statue was found guilty of murder and thrown into the sea. More recently, at the Council of Worms (864 AD) a swarm of bees were identified as killing a man, and their sentence was to be suffocated in their hive.
Next, we were introduced to the concept of “deodands” which is defined as something that has been forfeited to God because it has caused a person’s death. So, in English common law a haystack, a horse or a pig could become a deodand based on the coroner’s report as the cause of death and then forfeited to the crown (or an equivalent fine paid). This concept died in the 1830s because the number of forfeitures for railway deaths was negatively affecting the economy. It was replaced by a law to compensate victims and abolish deodands.
Next, Bob returned to animal trials. In 1457 a sow and her piglets were put on trial in Switzerland for murdering and eating a 5-year-old child. The sow was convicted and executed but the piglets were found innocent. Pigs were often a subject of trial - in 1379 part of a pig herd was convicted and executed for infanticide. In 1475 a rooster was put on trial for laying an egg – a rooster egg was thought to be spawned by Satan and could produce a creature part rooster and part dragon. This poor rooster was burned alive in a public square. This outcome occurred despite an advocate defender who made a compelling case for the innocence of this creature.
Legal actions were brought against insects and vermin, especially those that attacked crops. Often there were advocates for their defense claiming they were God’s creatures and did not have a mind of their own to know right from wrong. All over Europe cases were brought against rats, beetles, flies and caterpillars. During this period there were as many trials against animals as there were against witches. Both processes died out in the mid-18th century. Some had been tried in Ecumenical courts where the punishment was usually excommunication (no communion for the “faithful” locusts). The religious pronouncements against vermin usually did not change future pests’ behavior.
During the Napoleonic Wars a French ship was wrecked in a storm. The only survivor was a monkey mascot dressed in a French uniform. He was tried and hung. An existing detailed plaintiff’s statement against a dog who was charged with biting his Noble Lord rivals today’s legal documents in length and detail!