1907 Brown Dog Affair
The use of live animals in medical experiments has been a subject of controversy since the late 19th century, particularly when this vivisection is performed without anaesthesia. In Britain these experiments fell under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 which encouraged anaesthesia and more humane treatment of the specimen. Even so, opposition to animal testing was intense.
In 1903 a pair of female anti-vivisectionists from Sweden infiltrated the lab in London where such experiments were performed for the benefit of medical students. Their detailed notes, particularly of one procedure carried out on a small brown dog, created a scandal when they were published. A libel suit vindicated the accused doctor but feelings continued to run high.
In 1907 a statue of a terrier like the one used in the vivisection was erected in a park in Battersea, bearing the following inscription.
In Memory of the Brown Terrier
Dog Done to Death in the Laboratories
of University College in February
1903 after having endured Vivisection
extending over more than Two Months
and having been handed over from
one Vivisector to Another
Till Death came to his Release.
Also in Memory of the 232 dogs Vivisected
at the same place during the year 1902.
Men and Women of England
how long shall these Things be?
This outraged London’s medical students who felt that they had been vilified. The statue was repeatedly attacked and the disorders continued for years with left-wing groups battling it out on the streets with future doctors. On December 10, 1907, students from University College, King’s College, Guy’s and the West Middlesex Hospitals carried out raucous demonstrations that turned into a riot with 1,000 students facing 400 policemen, backed by trade unionists and suffragettes. (Women radicals tied the campaign against vivisection into their struggle for votes.)
To spare the city future riot the Battersea Council eventually had the statute (pictured above) torn down and melted.