Animals suspected of wrongdoing were entitled to lawyers and fair and speedy trials, not to mention human-like executions such as hanging if they were found guilty.
The Spokesman ReviewA rooster in Basel, Switzerland, was condemned to burn at the stake in 1474 for the “unnatural crime” of laying an egg.
newnform.orgAn illustration of a pig’s execution.
Wikimedia CommonsA sow and pigs on trial.
Rat infestations can be a pesky and all-too-common problem. But in medieval times, the solution wasn’t traps or poison. Instead, rats might receive a polite but firm letter, warning them to leave the house or field they were bothering. Amazingly, people believed this could work.
When animals harmed humans or caused damage, they weren’t just shooed away. They could face full trials, complete with judges, lawyers, and witnesses. These animal trials followed the same legal process as human cases. Edward P. Evans, a historian who studied this strange practice, wrote in 1906 that rats were often sent formal letters asking them to go elsewhere.
It sounds bizarre now, but in the Middle Ages, animals that broke the law were treated as if they had the same moral responsibility as people. If convicted, they could face punishments ranging from exile to execution.
Pigs, Rats, and Other Unlikely Criminals
One of the most famous animal trials took place in 1457 in Savigny, France. A sow and her six piglets were accused of killing a five-year-old boy. The court assigned them a lawyer and held a proper trial. In the end, only the mother pig was found guilty. Since people saw her attack the child, she was sentenced to death by hanging. The piglets, though found covered in blood, were spared for lack of proof they took part.
This wasn’t a rare event. Pigs were the most common animals put on trial. In medieval villages, pigs roamed freely and could grow large and dangerous. Sometimes they attacked small children. A 1386 case in Falaise saw a pig dressed in a man’s clothes, maimed on its head and legs, and hanged for killing a child. The entire town gathered to watch, including other pigs brought to see the punishment—perhaps as a lesson in good behavior.
Other animals faced trials too. In one famous case from 1510, a clever lawyer named Bartholomew Chassenée defended a group of rats accused of destroying crops. When the rats failed to appear in court, Chassenée argued they had stayed away out of fear—after all, cats roamed the streets. The court didn’t know how to respond, and eventually the case was dropped.
Wild animals and pests—like locusts, flies, and snails—were usually tried in church courts. Since they weren’t owned by people, they couldn’t be captured and executed. Instead, they were excommunicated or cursed, with church officials reading warnings to them in the fields where they lived.
Why Did People Do This?
So, why on earth did anyone think it made sense to put animals on trial? Scholars point to several reasons. One is that medieval society believed strongly in a natural order set by God, with humans at the top. When that order was disturbed—say, by a pig killing a child—it felt important to take formal action to restore balance. The trial and execution helped communities cope with tragedy and make sense of terrible events.
Public animal trials also served as a warning to others. Officials wanted to show that they took crimes seriously and that no lawbreaker, human or animal, would go unpunished. People might bring other pigs to witness the execution, hoping to prevent future attacks. Some trials also satisfied the community’s need for justice and revenge after a shocking crime.
There may have been a financial motive too. Economist Peter Leeson argues that church-run trials of pests helped increase tithe payments. If people saw the church cursing vermin, they might take its power more seriously—and be more willing to pay what they owed.
The End of Animal Trials
Animal trials began to fade out with the rise of science and reason during the Enlightenment in the 1700s. Thinkers started to question how it made sense to punish animals that couldn’t understand right from wrong. Around the same time, the idea of insanity as a legal defense took hold—another sign that the justice system was becoming more focused on intent and understanding.
But animal trials never completely disappeared. In 1906, a dog in Switzerland was tried and executed for helping in a robbery that led to murder. In 2008, a bear in Macedonia was convicted of theft after stealing honey from a beekeeper. Since the bear was part of a protected species, the government ended up paying the damages.
Though we might laugh at the idea today, these trials tell us a lot about the past. They reveal how people made sense of a dangerous and unpredictable world. And they remind us that even the strangest customs often had deep meaning to those who practiced them.
SOURCES: https://daily.jstor.org/when-societies-put-animals-on-trial/
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2016/02/animals-on-trial/
https://knows360.com/when-animals-went-to-court/
https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-law-is-an-ass-8-famous-animal-trials-from-history
In the Middle Ages, animals who committed crimes were subject to the same legal proceedings as humans. Edward P. Evans, a historian on the subject and author of a document called The Criminal Punishment and Capital Prosecution of Animals in 1906, wrote that rats were often “sent a friendly letter of advice in order to induce them to quit any house, in which their presence is deemed undesirable.”
Slate writer James E. McWilliams argues that, in the Middle Ages, unlike now, people treated animals more as sentient beings than as objects. Continued human interaction with the animals they owned, which amounted to up to 16 hours per day into the 19th century, left owners with more sympathy for them.
After learning about these bizarre animal trials, read up on the Salem Witch Trials and the Hans Werewolf Trials.
