All animal rights laws in the world originate from an Irish man called Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin and July 22nd 2022 is the 200th anniversary of the world’s first piece of animal welfare legislation.
Friday, 22ns July this year is the 200th anniversary of the world’s first piece of animal welfare legislation. Placed on the statute books by Irishman Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin, all legal protection of animals stems back to the Ill Treatment of Cattle Act – Martin’s Law.
To commemorate both the occasion and the city’s famous son, Galway has proclaimed the 22nd of July as Martin’s Day, with a ceremony outside his former house – now Tigh Neachtains pub. Galway’s Town Cryer made the proclamation on Friday July 22nd at 12 noon.
Martin was also the driving force behind the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and famously called a donkey to give evidence in a court of law. Paradoxically, ‘Humanity’ Dick was also the champion duelist of Ireland. Richard Martin pioneered animal welfare when the notion was incomprehensible to the public. King of his vast, remote Connemara lands, Martin first developed his animal rights law by locking miscreants up in the ruined castle on the lough behind his home – Ballynahinch Castle.
Martin’s Biographer, Peter Phillips, said “Humanity’ Dick Martin both embodied and transcended the colourful Regency period. Master of Connemara, but living in spectacular insolvency, he preferred to survive on the proceeds of smuggling than to charge his tenants rent. Backed by his private army, he protected people and animals alike. Raised a ‘Protestant of Convenience’ by his Jacobite father, Dick entered the Irish Parliament and for the next 50 years fought for Catholic emancipation, which he believed would only be achieved by peaceful, political ends.”
Active in anti-slavery and criminal justice reform, Richard Martin is especially remembered for his tireless campaign for animal rights. ‘Martin’s Law’ (1822) anticipated all such legislation, and he co-founded what became the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As an older man in his sixties, Martin decided to re-enter the British Parliament and create a formal version of his law. Then, not content with merely placing his law on the statute books and drawing on his dueling mentality, he proceeded to single-handedly enforce his law on the streets of Georgian London.
Peter Phillips argues passionately that Richard Martin is the greatest ever Irishman “a complex, mercurial and neglected hero, bestriding the two worlds of England and Ireland”. He contends that 22nd of July should be forever considered, worldwide, as Martin’s Day. A day that raises awareness of the work that still needs to be done around the world for animal welfare.
