Five surprising facts about the relationship between humans and animals throughout history

Nathan Laporte 1:42 p.m., January 19, 2024, modified at 1:44 p.m., January 19, 2024

How did they become our best friends?

Since when have we been talking about animal suffering?

Throughout history, the relationship that humans have with animals has evolved significantly.

Historian Éric Baratay details in an interview for the podcast “At the Heart of History”, five notable moments of this bond which unites man and animal. 

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The relationship between man and animal is a long story!

The process of rapprochement began at least 15,000 years ago, with the domestication of the dog.

And the relationship that humans have with animals has evolved significantly over time.

The animal has been in turn an object of research, a tool, a source of labor and of course, a companion.

Historian specializing in human-animal relations Éric Baratay, guest on the podcast “At the Heart of History”, sheds light on five remarkable facts in the history of this relationship.

Animals, subjects of study...from Aristotle

“How can we think about animals when we are only humans, that is to say one animal species among others?”

This is a complex philosophical question and... in reality very old.

“It’s a debate that has been raised since Antiquity, in Aristotle, Pythagoras and even Plutarch,” recalls historian Éric Baratay.

Convinced that the animal world is accessible to human intelligence, Aristotle devotes nine books to his "History of Animals", in which he compiles observations on animal diversity.

At the time, science and philosophy were not yet separated, and he was subsequently criticized for his tendency to attribute specifically human psychological qualities to animals.

Aristotle thus describes the “stupidity” of the boar, the “pride” of the peacock, or even the “perfidy” of the serpent.

In addition to anthropomorphism, another trap presents itself to the thinker: anthropocentrism, "that is to say judging animals in relation to oneself. These are two faults which come together", according to Éric Baratay.

In Rome, people buried their favorite animals

As for pets, historian Éric Baratay finds traces of them in ancient Egypt.

First used against rodents to protect crops, the cat subsequently became the companion of Man.

But in Rome, “we don’t really like cats, it’s more birds and dogs,” Éric Baratay tells us.

These companion dogs, found in all social strata, even have the privilege of receiving funeral honors!

“On the tombs, texts allowed us to see what people thought about their animals and we observe feelings quite similar to those we know today.”

The poet Martial, for example, wrote an epitaph in honor of Lydia, a hunting dog that her master would not have exchanged for anything in the world.

The Bible, enemy of the dog

The spread of Christianity disrupted existing practices.

“In the Bible, there are verses that are very unfavorable to dogs,” explains Éric Baratay in “At the Heart of History”.

Here is what we can read: “Out with dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lies!”

(Revelation 22,15) or "As a dog returns to what it has vomited, so is a fool who returns to his folly" (Proverbs 26,11).

“As a result, we will see the model of the companion dog disappear. The practice of burying your favorite dog seems scandalous,” continues the historian.

The Germanic invasions in the 4th and 5th centuries were another factor of change.

While Romanized populations, such as the Gauls, had stopped eating dog, the Germanic peoples continued to eat it.

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Descartes and the “animal-machine”

A new rupture took place in the 17th century, in the intellectual world: the animal was now considered a machine.

“Descartes is the theoretician,” explains Éric Baratay.

Cartesian philosophy is based on a dualism between the soul and the body, the latter being comparable to a clock with subtle workings.

He writes: “When a watch marks the hours by means of the wheels of which it is made, this is no less natural to it than it is to a tree to produce fruit” (Principles of Philosophy, 1644) .

And if the body of every living being is a machine, including the human body, it is at the level of speech and reason that we can distinguish Man from animals.

For Descartes, only the human being is endowed with a soul which gives him nobility, while the animal is only a machine.

For Éric Baratay, this current of thought led in the 20th century to the “industrialization of animals”, in breeding or slaughter for example.

The SPA is almost two centuries old!

“On the other hand, there is a small minority who have rebelled against animal suffering since the 19th century” underlines Éric Baratay.

In 1845, the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) was created, with the primary objective of defending horses mistreated by Parisian coachmen.

Five years later, the Grammont law, the first national animal protection law, was passed.

It takes its name from the general and deputy of the Second French Republic Jacques Delmas de Grammont, revolted by the mistreatment inflicted on horses mobilized for the war.

This law, which only punishes acts of cruelty towards animals in the public sphere, however aims more to preserve human sensitivity than animal integrity.

It was only with the Michelet decree, 109 years later, that the public condition of mistreatment was repealed, thus considerably broadening the repression of animal mistreatment.