The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America

321 Pages·2016·27.833 MB·English

by  Janet M. Davis

The Gospel of Kindness

The Gospel
of Kindness
Animal Welfare and the
Making of Modern America
z
JANET M. DAVIS
1
1
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© Oxford University Press 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davis, Janet M., author.
Title: The gospel of kindness : animal welfare and the making of modern
America / Janet M. Davis.
Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2016] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043336 (print) | LCCN 2016002418 (ebook) |
ISBN 978–0–19–973315–6 (hardback) | ISBN 978–0–19–991132–5 (Epub) |
ISBN 978–0–19–990888–2 (Updf)
Subjects: LCSH: Animal welfare—United States—History. | Animal
rights—United States—History. | Social values—United States—History. |
United States—Social conditions. | United States—History. | BISAC:
HISTORY / United States / General. | NATURE / Animal Rights.
Classification: LCC HV4764 .D38 2016 (print) | LCC HV4764 (ebook) |
DDC 179/.30973—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043336
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan, USA
To Zachary, Andrea, and Jeff
Duke and Lincoln
and in loving memory of my mother,
Jean B. Davis
(1931– 2002)

Contents
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
1. “A Righteous Man Regards the Life of His Beast”: The Roots
of the Gospel of Kindness in the Second Great Awakening and
Antebellum Reform  26
2. “A World of Kindness Is a Copy of Heaven”: Animals, Moral
Uplift, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union  50
3. From Dog Eaters to Mule Beaters: Representing the Accused
as Alien Other  84
4. An Empire of Kindness: American Animal Welfare Policy
and Moral Expansionism Overseas  116
5. “A Country Rich in Cattle”: Gospels of Kindness in Colonial
South Asia  151
6. “So Thoroughly Un- American”: Making Historical Sense
of the Bullfight  179
Conclusion  209
Notes  227
Index  291

Acknowledgments
On July 23, 2006, I was slowly biking up a steep, short hill. I was only
minutes from home. The temperature was 97˚F and the humidity was thick.
Suddenly, on the right side of the street, I spotted two stray dogs sniffing
around a neighbor’s house. I greeted them. They wagged their tails and fol-
lowed me home. They were thin, hungry, and covered in sores, fleas, dirt,
and— as we soon found out— they were not housebroken. But they were
exceedingly friendly. My family and I took them to the Town Lake Animal
Center to see if they were microchipped. They were not. Shelter employees
entered the dogs’ photographs and our contact information into their data-
base. I plastered the neighborhood with “FOUND— TWO DOGS” posters.
No one claimed them. We decided to keep them, reconciled to the fact that
the larger dog, a Boxer/ Labrador mix, might not be with us for very long. His
teeth were brown and worn down. He had heartworm. Our vet estimated his
age at “nine or ten.” The other dog, a small, slender, buff- colored mystery mix,
was little more than a puppy.
Nearly ten years later, Duke and Lincoln are still with us. They have been
my constant companions in the stillness of night and early morning while
I’ve researched and written this book, and they’ve helped clear my mind
during our daily walks and runs. When I took them to our local shelter on
that memorable July day in 2006, I turned to a local institution whose exis-
tence is a testament to the remarkable historical movement that is the subject
of this book.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped me— a lot— in making
this book a reality. I’ve been researching and writing for so long that “the
book” has seemed more of an abstraction than something solid. But here it is.
I couldn’t have done it alone.
I would like to thank the University of Texas at Austin for providing gen-
erous research support at key stages of this project. I am deeply grateful to the
College of Liberal Arts for funding a research assistantship while I served