Humphrey Primatt

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'''Humphrey Primatt''' (1734 – 1776/77) was an English clergyman and [[animal rights]] writer.<ref name="Simons 2002">Simons, John. (2002). ''Animals, Literature and the Politics of Representation''. Palgrave. pp. 39-41. ISBN 978-1-349-41045-3</ref><ref name="Oxford">[https://ift.tt/36SUc1R "Humphry Primatt"]. [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> Primatt has been described as "one of the most important figures in the development of a notion of animal rights."<ref>Garrett, Aaaron. (2000). ''Animal Rights and Souls in the Eighteenth Century''. Thoemmes Press. p. 19. ISBN 1-85506-826-5</ref>

==Biography==

Primatt was born in [[London]], in 1734.<ref name="Simons 2002"/> He obtained a BA in 1757 and MA in 1764 from [[Clare College, Cambridge]].<ref name="Oxford"/> He was a [[Church of England]] clergyman. He was Vicar of [[Higham, West Suffolk|Higham]] (1766-1774) and rector of [[Brampton, Suffolk|Brampton]] (1771-1774). Primatt obtained a [[Doctor of Divinity]] from [[Marischal College]], in 1773.<ref name="Oxford"/> He married miss Gulliver on October 2, 1769 and retired in 1771 to [[Kingston upon Thames]].<ref>Nichols, John. (1822). [https://ift.tt/2Unnxib ''Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century'']. London. p. 839</ref>

==Animal rights==

In 1776, Primatt authored ''A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals'', which argued that all animals created by God, so deserve
humane treatment and that any form of cruelty to animals should be equated with [[atheism]] and [[wickedness]].<ref>Nash, Roderick Frazier. (1989). ''The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics''. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 22-23. ISBN 0-299-11840-1</ref><ref>[https://ift.tt/2UknXWM "Jan Morris applauds an 18th-century anglican vicar and his unusual early enthusiasm for animal rights"]. ''[[The Independent]]''. Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref>

Primatt held that pain is evil and humans have no right to inflict it on animals or each other.<ref name="Simons 2002"/> He commented that "pain is pain, whether it be inflicted on man or on beast".<ref>Evans, Kimberly Masters. (2009). ''Animal Rights''. Cengage Gale. p. 6</ref> It was one of the first books to argue for the compassionate treatment of animals and influenced the [[animal welfare]] movement.<ref name="Niven 1967">Niven, Charles D. (1967). ''History of the Humane Movement''. Transatlantic Arts. p. 53</ref><ref>Linda Merz-Perez, Kathleen M. Heide. (2004). ''Animal Cruelty: Pathway to Violence Against People''. AltaMira Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-7591-0304-6</ref><ref>Boddice, Rob. (2008). ''A History of Attitudes and Behaviours Toward Animals in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain''. Edwin Mellen Press. p. 115</ref><ref>Levitt, Lacey; Patronek, Gary; Grisso, Thomas. (2016). ''Animal Maltreatment: Forensic Mental Health Issues and Evaluations''. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-19-936090-1</ref>

The [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]] considers the book a "foundation stone" of their organization as it influenced the founders of their society.<ref name="Niven 1967">Niven, Charles D. (1967). ''History of the Humane Movement''. Transatlantic Arts. p. 53</ref><ref>Li, Chien-hui. (2019). ''Mobilizing Traditions in the First Wave of the British Animal Defense Movement''. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-137-52650-2</ref> [[Arthur Broome]] was inspired by Primatt's book and republished it in 1822.<ref name="Bekoff 2010">Bekoff, Marc. (2010). ''Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, 2nd Edition''. ABC-CLIO. pp. 484-485. ISBN 978-0-313-35257-7</ref><ref>[https://ift.tt/2Unnymf "A Dissertation on the duty of mercy and sin of cruelty to brute animals by Humphry Primatt"]. Royal Collection Trust.Retrieved February 2, 2020.</ref> [[Henry Stephens Salt]] described it as a "quaint but excellent book".<ref>Salt, Henry Stephens. (1922). [https://ift.tt/2RTyUNf ''Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress'']. London: G. Bell and Sons. p. 117</ref> [[Marc Bekoff]] has noted that "Primatt was largely responsible for bringing animal welfare to the attention of the general public."<ref name="Bekoff 2010"/>

Primatt did not promote [[vegetarianism]].<ref>Puskar-Pasewicz, Margaret. (2010). ''Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism''. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 230. ISBN 978-0-313-37556-9 </ref> He suggested that man is permitted to kill animals for food but denied that this permits unnecessary suffering.<ref name="Oxford"/>

==Selected publications==

*[https://ift.tt/36T9Hqt ''A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals''] (1776)

==See also==

*[[James Granger]]
*[[John Hildrop]]

==References==




[[Category:1734 births]]
[[Category:18th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Animal rights activists]]
[[Category:Doctors of Divinity]]

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