As a result of a childhood injury, for most of her 58 years English-born
Anna Sewell (30 March 1820 - 25 April 1878) was not able to walk. She relied heavily on horse-drawn carriages and formed much empathy for the working equine. In her last years, much of the time bed-ridden, her mother Mary Wright Sewell (1798-1884), author of children's books, helped her complete
her only published novel Black Beauty (1877)
. The 'autobiography' of the horse was an immediate best-seller and sold to more than 100,000 copies in less than 20 years, with numerous translations. With its overall message to be kind to animals and treat them with respect, the story has been embraced by Humane Societies and animal-lovers the world over. It brought much awareness to the cruel use on horses of check or bearing-reins, with which the horse is forced to hold it's head up in an unnaturally high position causing breathing and back problems. Unfortunately they are still in use today. There now exists many memorials to Sewell and Black Beauty. In 1909 the Sewell family established a park in Anna's honour, with a triangular shaped decorative cement horse trough, beside Sewell Park Academy in Norwich, England.
A similar story based on a real dog,
Beautiful Joe, was published in 1894. Written by Canadian
author Margaret Marshall Saunders (1861-1947), she was awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1934 in recognition of her contribution toward securing humane treatment for animals. As well as tear-jerker films Old Yeller and Where The Red Fern Grows,
The Greyhound by author Helen Griffiths was published in 1964 with illustrations by Victor Ambrus.
"Nothing below, nothing above,
Nothing can heal the hurt but love."
