"I saw in my sleep a cart-horse who, coming to me, conversed with me in what seemed a perfectly simple and natural manner, for it caused me no surprise that he should speak.  And this is what he said:--

"'Kindness to animals of the gentler orders is the very foundation of civilisation.  For it is the cruelty and harshness of men towards the animals under their protection which is the cause of the present low standard of humanity itself.  Brutal usage creates brutes;  and the ranks of mankind are constantly recruited from spirits already hardened and depraved by a long course of ill-treatment.'"

From "Dreams and Dream Stories" (1886), literally a record of her dreams, by Anna Bonus Kingsford, British Theosophist, early feminist, and animal rights advocate.