Q. The other day our family drove past a very lively protest at an animal-testing facility at our local university. My dad made some snide comment about how “ever since the ’60s, each new crop of kids finds some bleeding heart cause to protest about.” I argued that animal rights activism has a long proud history, but actually, I don’t even know if that’s true. But I’d like to find out, so I can tell my dad he’s wrong. – Cherie, GA A. It is true and you are right, lucky for you – and even luckier for the countless animals that have been rescued, adopted, fed and loved by kindhearted animal rights activists, whose concentrated efforts (at least in the Western world) date back to the early 19th century. But even way back then, animal rights activism was an uphill battle. “Not so long ago, the very concept of animal protection would have seemed preposterous — simply unimaginable — to most people,” says historian Kathryn Shevelow, whose book, For the Love of Animals, charts the birth and progress of the animal rights movement. By the close of the 18th century, Shevelow writes, cockfighting, dogfighting and bear-baiting were wildly popular […]