Fair? Fair to who? I guess we could apply the same idea to slavery: it was OK back in the day to tie **** to a tree, then send them to work in the fields, and beat them if they didn't pick enough cotton, so if it was acceptable then, why should we condemn that activity now? That kind of thinking could take us backwards.
I agree and I think even then they knew it was wrong, they just didn't care. It's the way we are presently with animals where most people know it's wrong to abuse animals, but it's the way it's always been so very little is done about it.
People make fun of organizations like PETA and while I agree a lot of things they do is over the top, if it weren't for animal-rights groups, we wouldn't see a paradigm shift taking place where it's no longer socially acceptable to wear fur and abuse animals.
Future generations will look back at us with the same horror, but it doesn't mean we are all ignorant. People know the difference between right and wrong but either you care or you don't.
Same with back then, most people understood that it's wrong to mistreat other races but Sir John just didn't care.
He was on the wrong side of history.