In 1903 a brown dog was subjected over the course of several months to repeated live surgeries—described by witnesses to as having been conducted without anesthetizing the dog—in a laboratory and before students in a lecture hall of a London medical school. All this was done in the name of science before the dog was finally killed.
The presence of two witnesses — two Swedish anti-vivisectionists who had enrolled as students in order to document such incidents — brought publicity to the cruelties of Edwardian-era vivisection. The “Brown Dog Affair,” as it was termed, turned into a national cause célèbre that did not die down until the end of the decade and continues to resonate even today.
An antivivisectionist benefactor donated the funds for a memorial that was placed in the London Borough of Battersea. It consisted of a statue of a dog sitting upright, looking into the distance, set atop an ornate cylindrical base that contained a public drinking fountain. There was also a water trough at the bottom for use by animals. It was unveiled on September 15, 1906. The monument bore 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 Vivisections 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 in the same place during the year 1902.
Men and Women of England
How long shall these things be?
Sentiments against the monument simmered for more than a year. Medical students, medical professionals, and their sympathizers complained of the accusatory nature of the inscription. Nov. 19, 1907 a small group of students, wielding a sledgehammer, were thwarted in their attempt to destroy the statue. Several weeks later, medical and veterinary students from London, Oxford, and Cambridge numbering in the hundreds marched on the Recreation Ground and on Trafalgar Square. They were confronted with antivivisectionists. More attempts to destroy the statue were made, and, in the end, the Battersea borough council had the statue removed, suddenly and quietly, on the night of March 9/10, 1910. It is not known for certain what happened to the statue, but it is said to have been given to a blacksmith, who melted it down.
The little dog was not forgotten. In 1985 a new statue was commissioned by animal-welfare supporters and placed in Battersea Park. It bears the same inscription as the original.
