Perceived harm, economic damage, and legal control: ‘Damaging animals’ in early nineteenth-century rural Brabant

This paper examines how the category ‘damaging animals’ was constructed in the province of Brabant in Belgium during the first half of the nineteenth century. This notion was far from stable: different actors, socio-economic contexts, and documentation produced distinct ideas of which animals were considered harmful. Focusing on Brabant, the paper compares three sources: municipal questionnaires for the Dictionnaire Géographique de Brabant (1830), agricultural reports in the Staat van den Landbouw (1819–1828), and legislative records concerning animal control. The study proposes a methodological framework of three categories: perceived harm, economic damage, and legal targeting. Case studies of insects, birds, rodents, and carnivorans show that some species filled all three categories, while others largely fell outside the framework. Several animals were recognised as vermin without causing significant economic damage or prompting legal action. Overall, the sources show a strong emphasis on insects and rodents, which reflects their central role in everyday agricultural concerns.