GUILTY! The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals – J.P. Evans

• Publisher : Notoir Books (December 21, 2020)
• Language: : English
• Paperback : 268 pages
• ISBN-13 : 979-8584739676
• Item Weight : 12.6 ounces
• Dimensions : 5 x 0.61 x 8 inches

This is Europe’s largely forgotten history of putting animal “criminals” on trial and either executing and torturing them or, for plagues of insects, ordering them to leave town not only by a certain day, but by an exact time.

Such irrational barbarism is hard to fathom today, but as early as 824 all the way up to the middle of the 18th century, animals – although they are originally not born in sin – were held to the same moral standards as humans, suffering the same capital punishments and even rotting in the same jails.

This book abounds with historical anecdotes of not only the criminal prosecution of animals, but of plants, insects, corpses, and various inanimate objects also.

“If it weren’t so barbaric, it would be deeply funny.”