Cruelty to Animals Act 1876
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1876 c. 77 |
Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876
(39 & 40 Vict.) CHAPTER 77.
An Act to amend the Law relating to Cruelty to Animals.
[15th August 1876]
W HEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to cruelty to animals by extending it to the cases of animals which for medical, physiological, or other scientific purposes are subjected when alive to experiments calculated to inflict pain:
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as ‘TheCruelty to Animals Act, 1876.’
2 Prohibition of painful experiments on animals.
2. A person shall not perform on a living animal any experiment calculated to give pain, except subject to the restrictions imposed by this Act. Any person performing or taking part in performing any experiment calculated to give pain, in contravention of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall, if it be the first offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and if it be the second or any subsequent offence, be liable, at the discretion of the court by which he is tried, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.
3 General restrictions as to performance of painful experiments on animals.
3. The following restrictions are imposed by this Act with respect to the performance on any living animal of an experiment calculated to give pain; that is to say,
(1) (1.) The experiment must be performed with a view to the advancement by new discovery of physiological knowledge or of knowledge which will be useful for saving or prolonging life or alleviating suffering; and
(2) (2.) The experiment must be performed by a person holding such license from one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, in this Act referred to as the Secretary of State, as is in this Act mentioned, and in the case of a person holding such conditional license as is hereinafter mentioned, or of experiments performed for the purpose of instruction in a registered place; and
(3) (3.) The animal must during the whole of the experiment be under the influence of some ansthetic of sufficient power to prevent the animal feeling pain; and
(4) (4.) The animal must, if the pain is likely to continue after the effect of the ansthetic has ceased, or if any serious injury has been inflicted on the animal, be killed before it recovers from the influence of the ansthetic which has been administered; and
(5) (5.) The experiment shall not be performed as an illustration of lectures in medical schools, hospitals, colleges, or elsewhere; and
(6) (6.) The experiment shall not be performed for the purpose of attaining manual skill.
Provided as follows; that is to say,
(1) (1.) Experiments may be performed under the foregoing provisions as to the use of anaesthetics by a person giving illustrations of lectures in medical schools, hospitals, or colleges, or elsewhere, on such certificate being given as in this Act mentioned, that the proposed experiments are absolutely necessary for the due instruction of the persons to whom such lectures are given with a view to their acquiring physiological knowledge or knowledge which will be useful to them for saving or prolonging life or alleviating suffering; and
(2) (2.) Experiments may be performed without ansthetics on such certificate being given as in this Act mentioned that insensibility cannot be produced without necessarily frustrating the object of such experiments; and
(3) (3.) Experiments may be performed without the person who performed such experiments being under an obligation to cause the animal on which any such experiment is performed to be killed before it recovers from the influence of the ansthetic on such certificate being given as in this Act mentioned, that the so killing the animal would necessarily frustrate the object of the experiment, and provided that the animal be killed as soon as such object has been attained; and
(4) (4.) Experiments may be performed not directly for the advancement by new discovery of physiological knowledge, or of knowledge which will be useful for saving or prolonging life or alleviating suffering, but for the purpose of testing a particular former discovery alleged to have been made for the advancement of such knowledge as last aforesaid, on such certificate being given as is in this Act mentioned that such testing is absolutely necessary for the effectual advancement of such knowledge.
4 Use of urari as an ansthetic prohibited.
4. The substance known as urari or curare shall not for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be an ansthetic.
5 Special restrictions on painful experiments on dogs, cats, &c.
5. Notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, an experiment calculated to give pain shall not be performed without ansthetics on a dog or cat, except on such certificate being given as in this Act mentioned, stating, in addition to the statements herein-before required to be made in such certificate, that for reasons specified in the certificate the object of the experiment will be necessarily frustrated unless it is performed on an animal similar in constitution and habits to a cat or dog, and no other animal is available for such experiment; and an experiment calculated to give pain shall not be performed on any horse, ass, or mule except on such certificate being given as in this Act mentioned that the object of the experiment will be necessarily frustrated unless it is performed on a horse, ass, or mule, and that no other animal is available for such experiment.
6 Absolute prohibition of public exhibition of painful experiments.
6. Any exhibition to the general public, whether admitted on payment of money or gratuitously, of experiments on living animals calculated to give pain shall be illegal.
Any person performing or aiding in performing such experiments shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall, if it be the first offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and if it be the second or any subsequent offence, be liable, at the discretion of the court by which he is tried, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.
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