The first animal protection societies in Argentina against the spectacles of barbarism and cruelty (Rosario and Buenos Aires in the last quarter of the 19th century)

Abstract

This paper aims to address the beginnings of animal protectionism in Argentina as an essential exercise to better understand the current boom in animal rights. The focus will be on the first two experiences of protection in the country: Rosario and Buenos Aires, paying particular attention to their societal makeup and understanding the animal abuse that predominated there. Thus, it will observe a significant elitist presence in both, with broad foreign participation and a notion of animal abuse restricted to blood traction and bullfighting as unpleasant spectacles of colonial barbarism.