ABSTRACT
Animals abounded in Victorian London. The streets bustled with horse-drawn cabs and coaches, the congestion increased by sheep and cattle being driven to the livestock market. Menageries and circuses rendered animal spectacles routinely familiar. The sight of animals also became one of the important elements that formed popular images of the metropolis. A stream of horse traffic could be admired in a mood of public celebration of London’s ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’. Large livestock herds at Smithfield Market amazed sightseers with the enormous scale of meat consumption in the city. In parallel with this appraisal, however, an increasing number of people began to perceive that animals were sacrificed for metropolitan luxury and blatant commercialism. Accordingly, animal welfare campaigners emerged to crusade against cockfighting, baiting, dogcarts, vivisection and other practices that were deemed wanton cruelty to animals.1
