Bull's-eye Escapes

Bull’s-eye escapes

The 1800s saw the beginning of animal rights with the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 and the founding of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Cruelty to animals, however, was rife and Dickens captures this in Bill Sikes’s treatment of Bull’s-eye in ‘Oliver Twist’. In this scene Sikes attempts to drown his dog in case he gives him away whilst he is on the run; luckily Bull’s-eye escapes.

‘Sikes attempting to destroy his dog’, ‘Oliver Twist’, 1838. [Lib] 2319.3