A School Girl Takes a Stand
A local student writes to the paper to challenge the community's hypocrisy regarding the treatment of animals.
SEATTLE, June 15, 1892. TO THE EDITOR: Noticing an item in your paper some time ago where a Chinaman was tried and fined for cruel treatment to a rat, I thought maybe you would say something in defense of cats. As I was coming home from school today I saw a poor cat, which some boys were cruelly stoning to death. I think it is just as cruel in children and more shame of Christian parents, and merits punishment just as well as a heathen Chinese. There is a hoodlum class of children, who make the neighbor's life much more of a burden than a Chinaman does, after all. I write this hoping you will say something against cruelty to dumb animals by all. Yours, A SCHOOL GIRL
“There is a hoodlum class of children, who make the neighbor's life much more of a burden than a Chinaman does, after all.”
The young author points out a profound racial hypocrisy in the justice system of 1892, where 'cruelty' is aggressively prosecuted when committed by Chinese residents but ignored when committed by white children. This letter captures the intersection of early animal rights discourse and the anti-Chinese sentiment of the period.
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