okay, so in the 17th and 18th centuries, there were actually animal protection laws that existed on both sides of the pond in British society, believe it or not. we have records of people in courts mentioning their animals and there are plenty of examples of people naming their pets stupid shit like we do today, such as two cows i can recall right off the top of my head, named “troublesome” and “french woman”, and by all accounts people felt about their animals the way we do today, and very much attributed personality and human characteristics to them. in other words, our ancestors loved their puppers and kitties and cows and horses, too.
but as for the laws, animals were companionship, food, and labor sources at the time, and they were also expensive. for example, 200lbs of virginia tobacco could pay for a child’s entire education...or an adult bull. yeah. so there were laws in place that protected domesticated animals, such as cows, chickens, dogs, cats, horses, sheep, etc. these were people’s livelihoods and, say you killed someone’s chicken on accident, you cost them money and would be faced with a steep fine. horses were required to have their own lodgings and food at ordinaries. animal abuse was actually frowned heavily upon and punished through the courts. there were exceptions, of course, such as killing an animal in self defense, but on the whole, because animals were so important to every aspect of life, they were mostly protected from mistreatment unless there were other factors involved. for example, a dog that killed a sheep wouldn’t be tolerated, just as much as a person killing that sheep wouldn’t be. but otherwise, you didn’t abuse animals if you didn’t want to go to jail.
