Some historians regard the mutilation of cattle and other animals as a act of social protest like incendiarism. A convicted animal maimer in Norwich, England, left behind a written statement that corroborates this vision. Edmund Botwright, a farming blacksmith, left a note to his employer, after he had hanged two bullocks: 'your Exampel is, to have the poor all starved to deth you damnd raskell. You bluddy farmer could not live it was not for the poore, tis them that kepe you bluddy raskells alive, but their will be a slauter made amongst you verry soone. I shood verry well like to hang you the same as I hanged your beastes You bluddy rogue I will lite up a little fire this first opertunity...' (Norwich Mercury, 8 June 1844)
Two days later the barn, stables, and four animals were indeed burnt. Botwrights basic grievance was the latest piece of machinery introduced by his employer, a scuffling plough, which had replaced the labour intensive work of hand hoeing.
John E. Archer, 'By a flash and a scare'. Arson, Animal Maiming, and Poaching....(Oxford 1990) 215-216