Tell your MP that animal testing in the UK must end.
Today, Friday 12 December, marks the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of a new statue in Battersea Park to commemorate a key moment in the history of animal testing in Britain – the Brown Dog Affair.
This week we honoured that anniversary by enlisting the support of a group of MPs and leading a walk from the House of Commons to the statue, where we held a vigil.
The dog, a small terrier, was alleged to have been illegally used in an experiment without anaesthesia by celebrated physician, William Bayliss, at University College London, in 1903. A statue remembering the dog, erected at Latchmere Recreation Ground in Battersea in 1906, was frequently vandalised.
In December 1907, medical students marched through London to protest against the statue’s call for more humane science. They were met by counter protests from suffragettes and trade unionists, and fought with 300 police offers. This was the first of a series of clashes which were named the Brown Dog Riots and became a cause célèbre throughout the country.
The statue disappeared one night in 1910 and its fate remains a mystery to this day. Over 75 years later, this new statue, created by sculptor Nicola Hicks, was installed in Battersea Park.
The MPs who joined us in Parliament Square were: Steve Race (Labour, Exeter), Irene Campbell (Labour, North Ayrshire and Arran), Seamus Logan (SNP, Aberdeenshire North and Moray East), Neil Duncan Jordan (Labour, Poole), Alex Easton (Independent Unionist, North Down), Kerry McCarthy (Labour, Bristol East), and Peter Swallow (Labour, Bracknell).
Our Head of Public Affairs, Dylan Underhill, led the vigil and said: “This statue is a lasting memory and a reminder of the public’s concern with the treatment of animals in laboratories – and that is a concern that is as present and urgent today as it has ever been.
“Just a few weeks ago, the government published its strategy to replace animals in science, and this could be a major moment to accelerate the phase-out of animal testing. We are urging our supporters to help us turn this strategy into real change, and to seize this moment – we want supporters to keep telling their MPs why this is important to them.”
Will you help make this the moment that Parliament acts for animals in UK laboratories? Please contact your MP to encourage them to support the transition to animal-free science.
