The Association for Promoting Rational Humanity towards the Animal Creation (APRHAC) was a British animal welfare organisation active from 1830 to 1833. It formed part of the early nineteenth-century British movement against cruelty to animals, alongside the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Animals' Friend Society. Its activities included petitioning for legislation, publicising cruelty, promoting sermons and tracts on the treatment of animals, and campaigning on slaughterhouses, Smithfield Market, knackers' yards, hunting and blood sports.

The Association based its work on Christian principles and included a substantial number of clergymen among its officers. It published the quarterly periodical The Voice of Humanity from 1830 to 1833 and had at least four local branches by 1832.

History The Association was established in 1830. Together with the SPCA and, from 1832, the Animals' Friend Society, it was among the organisations conducting educational work, petitioning Parliament, campaigning for legislation, investigating cruelty and pursuing prosecutions during the early organised animal-protection movement in Britain.

By 1832, the Association had at least four local branches. Its Cambridge branch had been formed in 1831. The Reverend Thomas Greenwood of Trinity College, Cambridge, whom Li describes as a leading figure in the Association, connected animal protection with Christianity and patriotism in his sermons. In "On National Cruelty", published in The Voice of Humanity, Greenwood called on Christians and British patriots to oppose cruelty to animals.

The publication of The Voice of Humanity was suspended after the completion of its third volume in 1833. The Association attributed the suspension to expenditure on its activities and publishing having exceeded its receipts, leaving it in debt. By July 1834, an audit found that the debt had largely been cleared, although the Association was no longer soliciting subscriptions and publication had not resumed. Corey Lee Wrenn dates the dissolution of the Association to 1833.

Christian principles The Association stated that its work rested on Christian principles. Its committee declared in its 1832 annual report that there could be no "true humanity" that was not based on Christian principle. In 1832, five of its ten committee members were clergymen. Of the nine committee members of its Cambridge branch, five were clergy and at least four of those were Anglicans.

The Association also became involved in religious disputes within the early animal-protection movement. Members of both the SPCA and the Association objected to what they regarded as "Pythagorean principles" in Lewis Gompertz's Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes. Gompertz, the Jewish vegetarian honorary secretary of the SPCA, subsequently left the society and founded the non-sectarian Animals' Friend Society in 1832.

Campaigns

The Association described its objects as exposing cruelty to animals and encouraging petitions for its legal suppression; distributing practical, moral and religious information; encouraging clergy of different denominations to preach on the treatment of animals; circulating tracts; and monitoring Smithfield Market, the Hackney Coach Office and knackers' yards. It also sought police and local-authority intervention in cases of cruelty.

On 9 May 1832, the House of Commons recorded the presentation of a petition from the Association "to prevent Cruelty to Animals".

In April 1833, the Association petitioned the House of Lords over the location and conditions of London's cattle market. It proposed replacing the central market with four live-cattle markets, each with an adjoining abattoir, on the outskirts of London. The petition stated that driving cattle through crowded streets caused suffering to the animals and danger to the public.

The Association also opposed hunting practices. Hilda Kean notes that it criticised the keeping of captive stags for hunting and the breeding of stags and foxes specifically to be hunted.

The Voice of Humanity

The Association published The Voice of Humanity: For the Communication and Discussion of All Subjects Relative to the Conduct of Man Towards the Inferior Animal Creation quarterly from 1830 to 1833. It was published in London by J. Nisbet.

The periodical published practical proposals for preventing cruelty, reports of prosecutions and humane conduct, sermons, correspondence and accounts of animal treatment. Its recurring subjects included slaughterhouses and abattoirs, Smithfield Market, knackers' yards, working animals, blood sports and legislation concerning cruelty to animals.

See also Liverpool Society for Preventing Wanton Cruelty to Brute Animals Christianity and animal rights Animal welfare in the United Kingdom

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