It depends on the maturity of the field. In the 1800s? Absolutely. Animal rights are behind that of humans in the 1800s (yes I know human slavery was common at that time, and that’s my point, humans were treated as property and not as people with rights, which is how our legal frameworks view non-human animals now)

No reasonable scientist would have been murdering people in the 1800s...

I doubt there were many "reasonable scientists" in the 1800s.

Sure, you get someone else to do that[1]. Don't ask, don't tell of course.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

I have… bad news: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

Rule of thumb, when dealing with the 19th century: assume pretty much any level of cruelty, depravity, or plain stupidity was up for grabs (you have all three here, the stupidity being around the laws which made this industry inevitable). It wasn’t a very nice time, in general.

That is a pretty naiv assumption.

Congrats you found one example. I could probably list a dozen from recent times too.