Humanity Dick: The Revolutionary Compassion of Colonel Richard Martin, Part 2 of 2

Born into a prominent family in Galway, Ireland, he served as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom and used his position to champion the humane treatment of citizens from the animal kingdom. Colonel Martin was also a supporter of the abolitionist movement. Colonel Martin was a member of the Society for the Amelioration and Gradual Abolition of Slavery, established in 1823 throughout the British Dominions. This movement later contributed to the successful abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom.

Colonel Richard Martin also became known for his solitary walks through the streets of London, where he encountered acts of cruelty. Whether it was someone beating a horse-person or participants in blood-baiting entertainment, gruesome contests where animal-folks were forced to fight to the death, Colonel Martin would often intervene, physically stopping the perpetrators. His unwavering commitment to preventing such abuses prompted his friend, the future King, His Majesty George IV, to give Richard the nickname “Humanity Dick” because of his natural humane reaction to such obvious injustices.

Richard Martin proceeded to personally initiate numerous prosecutions of instances of cruelty to animal-individuals. This led to a substantial public debate on the subject. In one instance, a grocer was discovered beating a donkey-person with an iron buckle attached to a leather strap. Legend has it that Colonel Richard Martin had the injured donkey-individual brought into the courtroom so that the judge could see the effects of the brutality in person. The story quickly gained a life of its own in the 19th-century British print media, in which Richard Martin became the subject of mockery, where he was lampooned and caricatured. The tough Irish Member of Parliament saw this not as an insult, but as invaluable publicity for the burgeoning animal-people rights movement that was, consequently, beginning to put down roots within British society.

Richard Martin was determined that magistrates should not ignore the Act and, for this reason, on June 16, 1824, he attended the inaugural meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which took place in a small coffee shop in St. Martin’s Lane, London.

Richard Martin passed away in France in 1834, at the age of 79. Colonel Martin garnered a considerable victory that is still today preserved as legislation in the United Kingdom, and his work is respected as a significant milestone in the public’s awareness about animal-folks rights worldwide.