Review article
On the rights and trial od animals trough history
Petar Džaja
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jozo Grbavac
; The Faculty of Agriculture and Food Technology (APTF) of the University of Mostar
Magdalena Palić
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Petar Tomšić
; Bilofarm d.o.o. veterinarska ambulanta
Krešimir Severin
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper presents court proceedings against various species of animals that had committed an offensive act, whether they had injured or killed a human being, ruined crops or nature, or had sexual intercourse with humans. The most common sentence was the death penalty, and other punishments included anathema, warning, imprisonment, coerced confession, excommunication or persecution. The death penalty was most often carried out by hanging or burning, and the meat of the killed animals was mostly thrown into the river or buried in the ground, and only in rare cases was it sold or given to the injured party. In some verdicts, we find that large animals were exempted from punishment or their punishment was considerably milder compared to small ones, as was the case with male animals. Evans’ report from 1906 mentions 189 lawsuits against animals and shows that pigs were most often charged. In this report, pigs were charged with 45 cases (21.6%), followed by 34 cattle (16.34%), 26 horses (12.5%), 16 weevils (7.6%), 13 grasshoppers (6.25%), 10 dogs and donkeys (4.8%), 9 rats (4.3%), 5 sheep and snails (2.4%), 3 insects, goats, pests and worms (1.4%), 2 flies, eels, roosters and mules (0.9%), as well as 1 Spanish fly, mole, chafer, mouse, gadfly, insect, dolphin, turtledove, bloodsucker and wolf (0.45%). Of all the 189 animal prosecutions, most were in the 16th century (57), followed by the 17th century (56) and 15th century (36), although these disputes have been going on since the 9th century.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
274844
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2021.
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