|
|
|
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum welcomed Dan Mathews, vice president of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on Saturday. Mathews spoke during a ceremony to install a new exhibit that emphasizes Twain’s love for animals and his opposition to vivisection. PETA sponsored the exhibit and is donating $5000 toward museum operations. Several photos of Twain’s dogs and cats comprise the exhibit, including Bambino, his beloved black cat that went missing from Twain’s New York City home for a brief time. Twain advertised in the New York Times, and people arrived at his door carrying cats of all colors and sizes, even after he advertised that Bambino had returned home.
“Mark Twain is one of our heroes,” said Mathews. “He did not want to know what benefits might be derived from vivisection – he only cared to know whether or not the animal suffered. That is all he needed to know. His mother, Jane, championed the protection of animals, and he learned it from her.” Mathews added that PETA wanted to show their support of Twain in 2010 and timed the ceremony to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death on April 21st.
Museum supporters turned out for the ceremony with their pets in tow for the occasion. Chuck and Connie Brock brought their dogs, Dora and Diego, who instantly hit it off with the famed animal rights activist. Museum visitors were surprised to see puppies attending the event. Executive director Cindy Lovell was pleased with the ceremony. “This is just one more facet of Mark Twain that we can share,” she said. “Twain was probably the first celebrity to speak out against cruelty to animals.”
The museum installed a plaque with an excerpt from a letter Twain wrote to the London Anti-Vivisection Society, dated May 26, 1899. “I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling with me, and is so strong and so deeply-rooted in my make and constitution, that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction. I do not say I should not go and look on; I only mean that I should almost surely fail to get out of it the degree of contentment which it ought, of course, to be expected to furnish.”
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum welcomed Dan Mathews, vice president of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on Saturday. Mathews spoke during a ceremony to install a new exhibit that emphasizes Twain’s love for animals and his opposition to vivisection. PETA sponsored the exhibit and is donating $5000 toward museum operations. Several photos of Twain’s dogs and cats comprise the exhibit, including Bambino, his beloved black cat that went missing from Twain’s New York City home for a brief time. Twain advertised in the New York Times, and people arrived at his door carrying cats of all colors and sizes, even after he advertised that Bambino had returned home.
“Mark Twain is one of our heroes,” said Mathews. “He did not want to know what benefits might be derived from vivisection – he only cared to know whether or not the animal suffered. That is all he needed to know. His mother, Jane, championed the protection of animals, and he learned it from her.” Mathews added that PETA wanted to show their support of Twain in 2010 and timed the ceremony to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death on April 21st.
Museum supporters turned out for the ceremony with their pets in tow for the occasion. Chuck and Connie Brock brought their dogs, Dora and Diego, who instantly hit it off with the famed animal rights activist. Museum visitors were surprised to see puppies attending the event. Executive director Cindy Lovell was pleased with the ceremony. “This is just one more facet of Mark Twain that we can share,” she said. “Twain was probably the first celebrity to speak out against cruelty to animals.”
The museum installed a plaque with an excerpt from a letter Twain wrote to the London Anti-Vivisection Society, dated May 26, 1899. “I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling with me, and is so strong and so deeply-rooted in my make and constitution, that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction. I do not say I should not go and look on; I only mean that I should almost surely fail to get out of it the degree of contentment which it ought, of course, to be expected to furnish.”
