Russian feudal lords used to condemn some of their servants to serve as simple animals.

Russian feudal lords used to condemn some of their servants to serve as simple animals. Feudal laws allowed Lords to freely condemn some of their servants to lose the few rights they still had, and they received the same conditions and treatment as rural animals or livestock. The sentences fell on highly indebted servants, criminals, lazy people, homosexuals, rebels, alcoholics, the most violent and indoctrinated, were condemned to no longer being servants, but to true farm animals. Naturally, they were chosen from the greatest, rude, strong and stupid servants.

Most servants could have families, houses and a poor and dignified life, animal servants could not. They were treated with brutal violence and cruelty by everyone, even other servants.

To mark their condition and difference, they were always kept naked, chained and gagged, as animals do not dress or speak. It was common to cut the tongue so that they could never speak again.

On farms, they worked like beasts of burden, pulling carts, plows, or carrying heavy loads. They were kept naturally among the other animals, in the stables and pig pens, where they are treated and fed with pigs, horses and cattle.

In the farms these animals were seen frequently and naturally, there was no discomfort or strangeness. However, when any of them were taken to the cities, the citizens looked at these beasts with a mixture of disgust and contempt. The urban palaces of the feudal lords, often received some of these animals to pull carts or maintenance works.

The dirty aspect and the stench that these animals bothered some bourgeois. What bothered the elites was not a religious, moral or humanitarian issue, it was the ugliness, the dirty appearance and the stinking smell. Horses could be beautiful, clean and even smell good, these animals could not.

It was not seen as something sinful, cruel, unjust or wrong, it was just an unpleasant matter to deal with, a matter of inelegance.