Animal Rights: Percy Bysshe Shelly, “It is only by softening and…”

“It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.”
Percy Bysshe Shelly

Who was Percy Bysshe Shelly
Born on August 4, 1792—the year of the Terror in France—Percy Bysshe Shelley (the “Bysshe” from his grandfather, a peer of the realm) was the son of Timothy and Elizabeth Shelley. As the elder son among one brother, John, and four sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, and Hellen, Percy stood in line not only to inherit his grandfather’s considerable estate but also to sit in Parliament one day. In his position as oldest male child, young Percy was beloved and admired by his sisters, his parents, and even the servants in his early reign as young lord of Field Place, the family home near Horsham, Sussex.

Read More
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/percy-bysshe-shelley

Shelly’s contribution to animal rights

History of Animal Rights: Shelly

Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets was a controversial personality, an unconventional thinker of the time in which he lived. His uncompromising idealism and unorthodox life made him a much maligned figure. Shelly championed such causes as free love, atheism and vegetarianism, all of which were totally radical ideas in his day. He was an advocate of social justice for the working classes and likewise
for the injustices which he saw perpetrated upon all living creatures. Shelly became a fighter for the rights of animals after personally witnessing many and varied mistreatments which occurred during the domestication and and slaughtering of animals. In the more modern era it was Shelly who was among the first to speak out in regard to our treatment of animals as a progressive political issue equivalent with our treatment of other human beings. He considered that the slaughter of animals for food was not only the root crime of the human race but also the cause of all our other immoral and criminal behaviours.

Read more:
http://thinkdifferentlyaboutsheep.weebly.com/animal-rights-a-history-percy-bysshe-shelly.html

Take Action

Vegan Society
https://www.vegansociety.com/

PETA
https://how-to-go-vegan.peta.org/


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