'Developing the highest moral instincts' : protecting animals in Launceston 1879-1906

© 2015 Taylor and Francis Group LLC. Settled as Australia’s second colony in 1803, Tasmania began life as the island penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land and gained a reputation for brutality in the treatment of convicts and the Indigenous population. But brutality did not stop with humans. Settlers to the island had been accustomed to be cruel to animals in Britain and this practice continued in Tasmania. Decisive steps to stop this cruelty only emerged in the 1870s when branches of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were formed in Hobart in 1878 and in Launceston in 1879. This article examines the aims and methods of the Launceston branch of the SPCA and assesses its success in changing attitudes to animal cruelty. This article has been peer reviewed.