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Animal Relation In Medieval Europe

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Introduction
For centuries human have thrived and evolved alongside other species. We have co-existed with them since even before the first civilization of mankind. Thus, what does it mean to be a human? And does being a ‘human' give us the right to stand above all other life forms and other species?

This essay’s focus is on the historical field about human-animal relation in the Medieval Europe, with the focus on animal’s prosecution or commonly known as animal trial. The essay explores some part of a contemporary, with the focus on the middle age’s concept of animal’s right.

Human-Animal Relation in Medieval
In the medieval era, an artist, according to Harper (2014), the word ‘artist’ which derived from Middle French ‘artiste’, …show more content…

When discussing about fear that the people have toward animals, Huet (2004) confirmed that the people of the medieval, practically the Christians who were in conflict with the old/original Pagans, believes that many non-human creatures are prone to be a vessel/servants for the devils.

To understand the source of the fear that the people in medieval period have, we can turn to look at the teaching that were installed into them from the young age, from the growing teaching of the churches. The common conception of God (Johns 2013) was one of a vengeful, all-powerful, all-knowing being, an image that fostered an extensive sense of fear and ill-omened. If one were to displease the God by associating with a devil, he will sent rainstorms, thunder, lightning, or earthquakes..

Thus, in order to be fair and be in the good grace of God, the people of the medieval did what they could to be just and merciful. They trial criminals so that no innocently accused victims would be kill for wrong reason. This, unknown to most, also apply to animals as well, be it wild animals or domesticated ones like pigs and dogs. This action was known as animal prosecution or animal trial. As an example, a trial of animal in 1474 that was bought to court was based on the believe of religion …show more content…

We have developed a concept of ‘animal’s right’, yet, the rights were often not given fairly to the animals. Looking back to the past, the people of the middle age who have practiced the law of animal’s right could help provide us with some awareness of how animal trial should have been. Given that in today’s cases there are dogs/cats that have injured or killed (rarely for cats) a human and were put to death without a trial, or simply because they have become unwanted. An example of how ‘animals’ right’ were taken away without a fair trial is presented by Schweitzer (2014), in the statistic presenting the number of animals killed in New South Wales, Australia, without a trial, in

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