The rioplatense protectionism of the 19th century from the case of the sociedad argentina protectora de animales (1879 - 1898)

Abstract

Animal protection societies emerged in different parts of the planet during the 19th century, early in Europe and later in Latin America. The quantity and quality of studies on the Latin American case are not in accordance with the historical importance that these associations had, both in their work and in the delineation of an incipient animalistic paradigm.

This work focuses on the first Society for the Protection of Animals formally constituted in Latin America. Founded in Buenos Aires in 1882 in an elitist environment in the Argentine capital, pioneer in the search for legislation that would protect non-human animals and with a strong Anglophile ideology, it succeeded in promulgating the first criminal law in the region that sanctioned the animal abuse. His way of understanding animal protectionism, without abandoning the prevailing anthropocentrism of the time, had peculiarities that are worth telling.