The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals

The work surveys historical practices in which animals were formally accused, tried, and sometimes executed for harms or infestations, drawing on court records, ecclesiastical decrees, and contemporary theological writings. It catalogues procedural forms and ritual responses, including excommunications, anathemas, processions, and clerical interventions, and presents case studies ranging from insect infestations to livestock prosecutions. The analysis traces explanations that attribute animal mischief to demonic agency or moral agency, examines legal reasoning and popular belief, and challenges modern sentimental interpretations by situating these proceedings within medieval and early modern juridical and criminological ideas about punishment and responsibility.