Did you know that the RSPCA was set up sixty years earlier than the NSPCC?’

Contemporary society is peppered with state regulation – regulation of housing, driving, communication, education to name but a few. Even without taking the mass of health and safety regulation that has increased over the 20th century, state regulation controls virtually all activity people engage in and all institutions that activity involve. We live very much in a ‘regulatory-state’ where there are rules, regulations and laws that govern everyday life (Braithwaite, 2011). But life was not always like this. Godfrey et al (2007) argue that it was the second half of the 19th century that Britain saw the beginning of this regulatory state, which then grew exponentially over the 20th century. They argue that private and local authority agencies, backed by central government, turned to social regulation to alleviate the poverty and deprivation caused by industrial, economic and urban changes that took place during the previous decades of the 19th century. Thus began a time of social responsibly that the problems caused by the enormous changes of the Industrial Revolution would now be addressed. It was during this period, over the 19th century, in this atmosphere, that the conditions under which children and animals were kept and how they were treated became pressing issues. It seemed that their life experiences could be improved through regulation. However, it was the welfare of animals that took precedence.