A Few Notes on Cruelty to Animals

A Few Notes on Cruelty to Animals; on the Inadequacy of Penal Law; on General Hospitals for Animals; &c. &c. &c. is an 1846 treatise by the English surgeon Ralph Fletcher. Published in London by Longman and Co., it examines the treatment of animals in Victorian Britain and argues that existing cruelty laws were insufficient to prevent abuse. Drawing on his medical background and observations, Fletcher discusses the suffering of working and domestic animals, and called for stronger penalties against animal abuse, public oversight of slaughterhouses, humane education, and the need for hospitals for animals.

The book was reviewed in several contemporary journals, including the London Medical Gazette, The Athenaeum, and The Veterinary Record, which praised its moral tone and practical proposals. Later animal rights writers such as Henry S. Salt and Charles R. Magel have cited the work as an early example of literature addressing animal cruelty.