Books of the Week
While the subject of vivisection is so prominently before the public, it is opportune to draw attention to ANIMALS' RIGHTS, considered in relation to Social Progress, by Henry S. Salt (George Bell and Sons), which seeks “to set the principle of animals’ rights on a consistent and intelligible footing.” The title will grate, no doubt, on the ears of followers of Austin. It is true, however, that vivisection is only one branch of a wide question which includes the morality of sport, of the enslavement of domestic animals, of the slaughter of animals for food, and of “murderous millinery.” Many of Mr. Salt's pleas for humanity will win universal assent. But when his initial assumption of a right on the part of animals to live at any rate is found to involve the sacrifice not only of “experimental torture,” but of all forms of sport and animal food, the reader will feel that a too philosophical advocate may do the cause of humanity more harm than good.
The Times, October 27, 1892, p. 12