Year Event Country or region c. 530 BCE Greek philosopher Pythagoras is the first in a line of several Greek and Roman philosophers to teach that animals have souls and advocate for vegetarianism. c. 269 - c. 232 BCE Indian emperor Ashoka converts to Buddhism and issues edicts advocating vegetarianism and offering protections to wild and domestic animals. 100s Greek medical researcher and philosopher Galen 's experiments on live animals help establish vivisection as a widely used scientific tool. 675 Japanese Emperor Tenmu, a devout Buddhist, bans eating meat (with exceptions for fish and wild animals). Early 1600s Philosopher and scientist René Descartes argues that animals are machines without feeling, and performs biological experiments on living animals. 1635 The Parliament of Ireland passes "An Act against Plowing by the Tayle, and pulling the Wooll off living Sheep '', one of the first known pieces of animal protection legislation. 1641 Regulations against "Tirranny or Crueltie '' toward domestic animals are included in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties. 1687 The Japanese ban on eating meat, which had waned with the arrival of Portuguese and Dutch missionaries, is reintroduced by the Tokugawa shogunate. Killing animals is also prohibited. 1780 In An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation philosopher Jeremy Bentham argues for better treatment of animals on the basis of their ability to feel pleasure and pain, famously writing, "The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? '' 1822 Led by Richard Martin, British Parliament passes the "Act to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle ''. 1824 Richard Martin, along with Reverend Arthur Broome and abolitionist Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, founds the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), the world 's first animal protection organization. 1830s Early vegan and anti-vivisectionist Lewis Gompertz leaves the SPCA to found the Animals ' Friend Society, opposing all uses of animals which are not for their benefit. 1835 Britain passes its first Cruelty to Animal Act after lobbying from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, expanding existing legislation to protect bulls, dogs, bears, and sheep, and prohibit bear - baiting and cock - fighting. 1847 The term "vegetarian '' is coined and the Vegetarian Society is founded in Britain. 1859 Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species is published, demonstrating that humans are the evolutionary descendants of non-human animals. 1866 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is established. 1866 onwards Under the Meiji Restoration and renewed contact with the West, the Japanese taboo against meat - eating is actively discouraged by the government. Meat - eating soon becomes the norm. 1875 Frances Power Cobbe founds the National Anti-Vivisection Society in Britain, the world 's first anti-vivisection organization. 1876 After lobbying from anti-vivisectionists, Britain passes the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876, the first piece of national legislation to regulate animal experimentation. 1877 Anna Sewell 's Black Beauty, the first English novel to be written from the perspective of a non-human animal, spurs concern for the welfare of horses. 1892 Social reformer Henry Salt publishes Animals ' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress, an early exposition of the philosophy of animal rights. 1903 - 1910 The Brown Dog affair brings anti-vivisection to the forefront of public debate in Britain. 1923 Intensive animal farming begins when Celia Steele raises her first flock of chickens for meat. 1944 Donald Watson coins the word "vegan '' and founds The Vegan Society in Britain. Early 1950s Willem van Eelen recognizes the possibility of generating meat from tissue culture. 1955 The Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), the first organization to lobby for humane slaughter legislation in the US, is founded. 1958 The American Humane Slaughter Act is passed. 1960 Indian parliament passes its first national animal welfare legislation, The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. 1964 The Hunt Saboteurs Association is founded in England to sabotage hunts and oppose bloodsports. 1964 Ruth Harrison 's Animal Machines, which documents the conditions of animals on industrial farms, helps to galvanize the animal movement in Britain. 1964 Largely due to the outcry following Animal Machines, British Parliament forms the Brambell Committee to investigate animal welfare. The Committee concludes that animals should be afforded the Five Freedoms, which consist of the animal 's freedom to "have sufficient freedom of movement to be able without difficulty to turn around, groom itself, get up, lie down, (and) stretch its limbs. '' 1966 Following public outcry over the cases of Pepper and other mistreated animals, the American Animal Welfare Act is passed. This legislation sets minimum standards for handling, sale, and transport of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, rabbits, hamsters, and guinea pigs, and instates conservative regulations on animal experimentation. 1970 Animal rights activist Richard Ryder coins the term "speciesism '' to describe the devaluing of nonhuman animals on the basis of species alone. 1971 The United States Department of Agriculture excludes birds, mice, and rats - which make up the vast majority of animals used in research - from protection under the Animal Welfare Act. Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman of the Band of Mercy, a militant group founded by former members of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, are jailed for firebombing a British animal research center. The Council of Europe passes a directive requiring that animals be rendered unconscious before slaughter. Henry Spira founds Animal Rights International after attending a course on animal liberation given by Peter Singer. Peter Singer publishes Animal Liberation, whose depictions of the conditions of animals on farms and in laboratories and utilitarian arguments for animal liberation are to have a major influence on the animal movement. 1976 The European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes, which mandates that animals be kept in conditions meeting their "physiological and ethological needs '', is passed. 1976 Released from prison, Ronnie Lee founds the Animal Liberation Front in Britain, which soon spreads to the US. 1976 - 1977 Under the leadership of Henry Spira, Animal Rights International leads a successful campaign to end harmful experiments performed on cats at the American Museum of Natural History. 1980 A campaign by Animal Rights International opposing Draize tests performed on rabbits by the cosmetics company Revlon results in Revlon making a $250,000 grant to Rockefeller University to research alternatives to animal experimentation. Several other major cosmetics companies soon follow suit. 1980 Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco found People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 1981 - 1983 The Silver Spring monkey controversy begins when Alex Pacheco 's undercover investigation of Edward Taub 's monkey research laboratory results in Taub 's arrest for animal cruelty. Taub is later convicted on six counts of inadequate veterinary care, which is then overturned on the grounds that state animal welfare laws do not apply to federally - funded experiments. 1984 Tom Regan publishes The Case for Animal Rights, a highly influential philosophical argument that animals have rights (as opposed to Peter Singer 's utilitarian case for animal liberation). PETA and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine end their highly publicized legal battle over the Silver Spring monkeys, failing to gain custody of the animals. Switzerland becomes the first country to include protections for animals in its constitution. The European Union 's Protocol on Animal Protection is annexed to the treaty establishing the European Community. The Protocol recognizes animals as "sentient beings '' (rather than mere property) and requires countries to pay "full regard to the welfare requirements of animals '' when making laws regarding their use. 1998 The EU passes the Council Directive 98 / 58 / EC Concerning the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes, which is based on a revised Five Freedoms: freedom from hunger and thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury, and disease; from fear and distress; and to express normal behavior. 1999 Willem van Eelen secures the first patent for in vitro meat. 1999 European Union Council Directive 1999 / 74 / EC is legislation passed by the European Union on the minimum standards for keeping egg laying hens which effectively bans conventional battery cages. 2000 - 2009 Bans on fur farming are instituted in the United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Court of Justice issues a conservative interpretation of the 1997 Protocol on Animal Protection in the Jippes case, stating that the law did not create new protections for animals but only codified existing ones. 2006 Veal crates become illegal in the EU. 2008 Spain passes a non-legislative measure to grant non-human primates the right to life, liberty, and freedom from use in experiments. However, this requires further action by the government to become formal law, which has not been taken. 2008 California passes a ballot measure requiring that a chicken "be able to extend its limbs fully and turn around freely ''. This has been described as a ban on battery cages, but battery cages giving 116 square inches per hen are allowed under the law. Gary Yourofsky 's YouTube lecture on veganism and factory farming entitled "Best Speech You Will Ever Hear '' is translated into Hebrew, and goes viral in Israel. The speech helps drive a surge in Israeli interest in veganism and animal rights. EU Directive 2010 / 63 / EU is the EU legislation "on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes '' and is one of the most stringent ethical and welfare standards worldwide. 2011 - 2016 After undercover investigations spark public outrage over animal abuse on industrial farms, several American states introduce "ag - gag '' laws in an effort to criminalize such investigations. 2012 The EU 's ban on battery cages goes into effect. Furnished cages are still allowed, however. 2012 A group of prominent scientists issue the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which states that "the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including insects and octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates. '' 2013 The EU bans testing cosmetics on animals. 2013 The Nonhuman Rights Project files the first - ever lawsuits on behalf of chimpanzees, demanding courts grant them the right to bodily liberty via a writ of habeas corpus. The petitions are denied and the cases move on to appellate courts. 2013 The UK legislation to protect animals in research, The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, is amended to protect "... all living vertebrates, other than man, and any living cephalopod. '' Previously, the only protected invertebrate was the common octopus. 2014 India becomes the first country in Asia to ban testing cosmetics on animals as well as imports of animal - tested cosmetics. 2015 In a survey of Israelis, 8 % of respondents identify as vegetarian and 5 % as vegan (up from 2.5 % vegetarians in 2010), making Israel the country with the highest percentage of vegans. 2015 - 2016 Following major public backlash prompted by the 2013 film Blackfish, SeaWorld announces it will end its controversial orca shows and breeding program. 2015 - 2016 In the U.S., a number of major egg buyers and producers switch from battery - cage to cage - free eggs. 2016 Cellular agriculture company Memphis Meats announces the creation of the first in vitro meatball.
when was the first animal rights law passed
1635