It has taken two centuries of hard campaigning to halt some of the worst abuses of animals in the UK. The baiting of bears and bulls has been banned, trade in wild birds curtailed, fur farms outlawed, and wild animals prohibited from being displayed in circuses.
Yet the creatures with whom we share the country still suffer at our hands. Indeed, they have never faced a more worrying future than they do now, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has warned as it prepares to celebrate its 200th birthday.
