THE CASE FOR THE DOC.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3381, 4 July 1927, Page 2

THE CASE FOR THE DOC.

(By Sir Leo Chiozza Money.) It is not surprising that nearly every dog owner believes that he possesses the best dog in all the world. Dogs make ns their gods, and create in us an altogether incredible degree of affection.

The present writer, for example, is one of those who possesses the best dog in the world, and he often seeks to explain himself flow the little rascal docs it. Certain attributes can be explained, such a courage, faithfulness and devotion, but there is something beyond these—.something subtle and profound which defies analysis. It is only a very melancholy thing that surgeons should ask ns to believe that, although the species of animals are so many and so varied, the universally beloved dog is absolutely essential to the vivisector.

I do not wish to discuss the question of vivisection generally, but to put before men of science and the public one perfectly plain and simple issue, which is this: —Granted that vivisection is necessary for the welfare and progress ■o: mankind, why should one particular species of animal be essential for the purposes of research? . . . ,What is it in the anatomical structure of the dog that makes is so peculiarly different from other'animals, and so peculiarly analogous to man, that the surgeon' cannot dispense .with the body of a creature so universally beloved ?

It woujd indeed be a sisgidar coincidence if it were true that the one animal known to ns which never hesitates to sacrifice himself for man, should also be one that man must needs sacrifice unto himself. I am glad to think that not a few scientists repudiate what is on the face of it an untenable proposition. ’The brains, the heart, the kidneys.of a dog do not differ essentially from those of a guinea pig, rat. sheep, or goat. lam quite sure that there are many dogowners who would re:use to benefit by research made at the expense of dogs, even if dogs were the only possible subjects of useful experiment. But we are most certainly not faced with the terrible dilemma that we must either consume dogs in research laboratories or fail to make progress in combating, disease. One eminent medical authority has told us that the real reason why dogs arc so largely used in research is that they are cheap. University College, we know, offers six shillings each for clous, and that price lias been paid by them, as was proved at a police court, for stolen animals. (The college until unties did not know that the dogs were stolen ; small comfort to dog-owners.) But it is not only that dogs are cheap ; it is also that they arc tractable, and that they believe no evil of those who handle them. So they come to the operating table ready to lick the hands of those about to destroy thoih.

Few people know how many dogs arc sacrificed to research. In 192b there were 209,014 officially recorded experiments upon animals, a large proportion being nqide' upon dogs. The number of licensed viviscctors is about 1,100, and one London laboratory confesses to using bOO dogs in a year! Unsatisfied with these remarkable figures, and unabashed by their carelessness in buying dogs cheap from a vendor of no reputation, the authorities of University College have publicly made a claim that stray dogs should he placed at the disposal of research bv the iState itself!

It is often denied that cruelty to dogs is involved in the experiments made upon them, and we are assured that anaesthetics are used wherever possible. I wonder that any intelligent man can 'deir>' tbnf experiments with and operations upon living creatures are necessarily cruel, if they are not cruel, why do wo all shrink from the thought of an operation? To listen to the viyrsector.s-, one would imagine the operating theatre a place of light entertainment.

Dr Fiekling-Onld bars cogently remarked that any human, being who has experienced a severe operation could give the vivisector information very much to the point. And then there are the “experiments” with poisons. [ have before me an account which 1 forbear to repeat, of the sufferings (T a dog- which, died after'sixteen hours’ from an experimental dose of tetraiodo. This poisoning was done at the Brown Institute, Wandsworth, which was founded by a lover of animals, who little dreamed what would be 'done witin’ll the wall- be established.

The Dogs’ Protection Bilk which seeks to exclude the deg entirely from tbc region of experiment, is before Parliament. Let every dog-lover beg inis reprehonta live in " Parliament to press the measure forward; it has very wide support both, in and out of the House of Commons, hut the Home Office upholds the vivisectors in opposing it.