very early in my life, possibly because of the insatiable curiosity that was born in me, i came to dislike the performances of trained animals. it was my curiosity that spoiled for me this form of amusement, for i was led to seek behind the performance in order to learn how the performance was achieved. and what i found behind the brave show and glitter of performance was not nice. it was a body of cruelty so horrible that i am confident no normal person exists who, once aware of it, could ever enjoy looking on at any trained-animal turn.
now i am not a namby-pamby. by the book reviewers and the namby-pambys i am esteemed a sort of primitive beast that delights in the spilled blood of violence and horror. without arguing this matter of my general reputation, accepting it at its current face value, let me add that i have indeed lived life in a very rough school and have seen more than the average man’s share of inhumanity and cruelty, from the forecastle and the prison, the slum and the desert, the execution-chamber and the lazar-house, to the battlefield and the military hospital. i have seen horrible deaths and mutilations. i have seen imbeciles hanged, because, being imbeciles, they did not possess the hire of lawyers. i have seen the hearts and stamina of strong men broken, and i have seen other men, by ill-treatment, driven to permanent and howling madness. i have witnessed the deaths of old and young, and even infants, from sheer starvation. i have seen men and women beaten by whips and clubs and fists, and i have seen the rhinoceros-hide whips laid around the naked torsos of black boys so heartily that each stroke stripped away the skin in full circle. and yet, let me add finally, never have i been so appalled and shocked by the world’s cruelty as have i been appalled and shocked in the midst of happy, laughing, and applauding audiences when trained-animal turns were being performed on the stage.
one with a strong stomach and a hard head may be able to tolerate much of the unconscious and undeliberate cruelty and torture of the world that is perpetrated in hot blood and stupidity. i have such a stomach and head. but what turns my head and makes my gorge rise, is the cold-blooded, conscious, deliberate cruelty and torment that is manifest behind ninety-nine of every hundred trained-animal turns. cruelty, as a fine art, has attained its perfect flower in the trained-animal world.
possessed myself of a strong stomach and a hard head, inured to hardship, cruelty, and brutality, nevertheless i found, as i came to manhood, that i unconsciously protected myself from the hurt of the trained-animal turn by getting up and leaving the theatre whenever such turns came on the stage. i say “unconsciously.” by this i mean it never entered my mind that this was a programme by which the possible death-blow might be given to trained-animal turns. i was merely protecting myself from the pain of witnessing what it would hurt me to witness.
but of recent years my understanding of human nature has become such that i realize that no normal healthy human would tolerate such performances did he or she know the terrible cruelty that lies behind them and makes them possible. so i am emboldened to suggest, here and now, three things:
first, let all humans inform themselves of the inevitable and eternal cruelty by the means of which only can animals be compelled to perform before revenue-paying audiences. second, i suggest that all men and women, and boys and girls, who have so acquainted themselves with the essentials of the fine art of animal-training, should become members of, and ally themselves with, the local and national organizations of humane societies and societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
and the third suggestion i cannot state until i have made a preamble. like hundreds of thousands of others, i have worked in other fields, striving to organize the mass of mankind into movements for the purpose of ameliorating its own wretchedness and misery. difficult as this is to accomplish, it is still more difficult to persuade the human into any organised effort to alleviate the ill conditions of the lesser animals.
practically all of us will weep red tears and sweat bloody sweats as we come to knowledge of the unavoidable cruelty and brutality on which the trained-animal world rests and has its being. but not one-tenth of one per cent. of us will join any organization for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and by our words and acts and contributions work to prevent the perpetration of cruelties on animals. this is a weakness of our own human nature. we must recognize it as we recognize heat and cold, the opaqueness of the non-transparent, and the everlasting down-pull of gravity.
and still for us, for the ninety-nine and nine-tenths per cent. of us, under the easy circumstance of our own weakness, remains another way most easily to express ourselves for the purpose of eliminating from the world the cruelty that is practised by some few of us, for the entertainment of the rest of us, on the trained animals, who, after all, are only lesser animals than we on the round world’s surface. it is so easy. we will not have to think of dues or corresponding secretaries. we will not have to think of anything, save when, in any theatre or place of entertainment, a trained-animal turn is presented before us. then, without premeditation, we may express our disapproval of such a turn by getting up from our seats and leaving the theatre for a promenade and a breath of fresh air outside, coming back, when the turn is over, to enjoy the rest of the programme. all we have to do is just that to eliminate the trained-animal turn from all public places of entertainment. show the management that such turns are unpopular, and in a day, in an instant, the management will cease catering such turns to its audiences.
jack london
glen ellen, sonoma county, california,
december 8, 1915
