The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906)
Spouse
Elizabeth Edson Gibson
(
m. 1868; died 1911)
Edward Payson Evans (December 8, 1831 – March 6, 1917) was an American scholar, linguist, educator, and early advocate for
animal rights. He is best known for his 1906 book on
animal trials, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals.
From 1858 to 1862, he traveled abroad, studying at the universities of
Göttingen,
Berlin and
Munich.[5] On his return to the United States, he became professor of
modern languages at the University of Michigan.[5] In 1868, he married Elizabeth Edson Gibson,[6] and in 1870, Evans resigned his position at Michigan to travel abroad again, where he gathered materials for a history of
German literature,[5] and made a specialty of studying
oriental languages.[7]
Evans died at his home in New York City, on March 6, 1917.[3]
Legacy
Evans' 1906 book The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, is considered to be the seminal work on the topic of
animal trials.[9] In recent years the book has been the subject of several critiques.[10]
Environmental historian
Roderick Nash argues that both Evans and
J. Howard Moore, "deserve more recognition than they have received as the first professional philosophers in the United States to look beyond anthropocentrism."[11]