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The Brown Dog Affair began in 1903 when Lizzy Lind & Leisa Schartau, Swedish activists who would go on to found their own Anti-Vivisection League, infiltrated William Bayliss’s classroom on Feb. 2, 1903 on a clandestine tour of animal experimentation facilities. It must be noted that his work led directly to the discovery & understanding of hormones, first posited in 1905.
Lind & Schartau witnessed two exploratory surgeries performed on a dog in the same session. The animal still bore the scars from a procedure months before & had presumably lived with that pain since. Restrained flat to a board, it writhed & struggled before a medical student stabbed it through the heart.
They published a 200 pg. report on April, 14th 1903 exposing their findings. This led to public outcry, demonstrations & finally the November 1903 defamation suit, Bayliss vs. Coleridge.
Though the court sided w/ Bayliss & damages were awarded, the outrage did not die out. In 1906, a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate & appraise the use of vivisections in animal experimentation.
It was then that the Brown Dog Memorial (sculpted by Joseph Whitehead) was erected. Backlash from medical students led to the Brown Dog Riots on Dec. 10, 1907 when the protested at once. This led to 24 hour policing of the statue & finally it’s removal in 1910.
The Anti-Vivisection Society was founded in 1875 by suffragette Frances Power Cobbe. It contributed heavily to the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act passing w/ Queen Victoria’s support. Robert Browning & Alfred Lord Tennyson were early office holders.
Rudyard Kipling & Thomas Hardy spoke in support during the trial. Mark Twain even penned an anti-vivisection short story entitled A Dogs Tale told through a mother’s eyes watching her puppy be vivisected & killed.
Much can be read about the seven years that led to these protest photos.
(2) photographs depict the protest rally against the 1910 removal of the Brown Dog Memorial Statue in Battersea. After years of animal rights activists clashing w/ Royal Veterinary College medical students, the city is believed to have removed it under cover of darkness & armed guard - destroying it by smelting immediately.
Brown Dog Memorial banner reads Justice & Mercy for Animals (4.25 x 5.75”).
Parade car w/ man in dog head & live dog. Banner reads Why Should We Be Vivisected. 4.75 x 6.5”.
Both exhibit British & N.Y.C. press marks w/ captions referring to the Anti-Vivisection Society Demonstration / Against the Removal of the Brown Dog Statue.
(3) photos document a dog w/ paws wired flat to the board. Neck is restrained & jaws forced by a steel clamp. It is most disturbing to see open eyes behind the steel shields. Much of this treatment follows the details released in trial by Lind & Schartau. Not captioned, it is unknown if these are of the brown dog made famous by the trial or a later study. 6 x 8.25” to 6.5 x 8.5” w/ expected curl.
Wildy important document in the history of animal rights.
