'Torture in the Way of Business'

Résumé du livre

This paper has two foci. The first is the efforts made by journalists in general -- and in particular by those writing for Household Words -- to educate readers about cruelty to farm animals; the second is the efforts they made to educate readers as to the modern farming practices of agriculturalists such as Joseph Mechi. At the same time as the Household Words writers were decrying various sorts of farming-related cruelty to animals, they were supporting new approaches to large-scale farming that would eventually lead to the systemic cruelties that are fundamental to industrial farming today. In the context of many 1850s and 1860s farms, however, Joseph Mechi may well have been right in concluding that what was best for the efficiency and profitability of the farm was also what was best for the non-human animals.