THE ROLE OF THE RUSSIAN ANIMAL PROTECTION SOCIETY IN IMPROVING THE LEGISLATION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE FIELD OF HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS IN THE 2ND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The article analyses one of the key law-making initiatives of the Russian Animal Protection Society, which arose in 1865. This law-making initiative of Society was launched in the 2nd half of the 19th century and thanks to it, a norm establishing legal responsibility, appeared in the criminal law act of the Russian Empire – the «Statute on Punishments Imposed by Justices of the Peace». For the first time in the history of the development of Russian law a norm that establishes legal liability for intentionally inflicting torment on pets has appeared. The different law-making practice of protecting animals from cruel treatment, which at the said time did exist in foreign countries, is given. It was taken into account by the Society when developing the draught law. Starting with the introduction of administrative measures to protect animals in the form of «Rules for the treatment of animals» approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Society faced with the ineffectiveness of their application in practice after some time. Then the Society came to the conclusion that it was necessary to establish in legislation legal liability for causing animals to suffer. The draught law prepared by the Society, found a response from the supreme authorityas a result of which, Russian criminal law was supplemented with a fundamentally new norm that puts animal rights under the state protection of.