Fantastically Wrong: Europe’s Insane History of Putting Animals on Trial and Executing Them

This is Europe’s shameful and largely forgotten history of putting animal "criminals" on trial and either executing them or, for plagues of insects, ordering them to leave town not only by a certain day, but by an exact time. Such irrational barbarism is hard to fathom, but as early as 824 all the way up to the middle of the 18th century, animals were held to the same moral standards as humans, suffering the same capital punishments and even rotting in the same jails.

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from WIRED » Science http://feeds.wired.com/c/35185/f/661470/s/3ec6c89a/sc/10/l/0L0Swired0N0C20A140C0A90Cfantastically0Ewrong0Eeuropes0Einsane0Ehistory0Eputting0Eanimals0Etrial0Eexecuting0C/story01.htm

via Science News