BRING YOUR SICK ANIMALS, DON’T LET THEM SUFFER
THE sign on the street outside the humble cellar said it all: “Bring your sick animals. Don’t let them suffer. All animals treated. All treatment free.” On November 17, 1917, Britain’s first clinic offering free care to the sick pets and working animals of the poor was opened in London’s East End. With millions of humans being killed or wounded in the trenches of the First World War, society seemed to have little time for the plight of creatures belonging to people who couldn’t afford to have them treated.
Yet visionary Maria Dickin was determined that they should not be forgotten. She said: “I could see suffering animals all over the world without anybody to help them and I thought this sort of thing can’t go on.”
Today the organisation she founded, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), thrives, having provided 100 million free treatments to 20 million pets. And 100 years on from Maria’s first pioneering step the story of how she campaigned tirelessly for better animal welfare still stirs the soul.
Maria was born in September 1870, the daughter of a Free Church minister in Hackney, the eldest of eight children. The family had little money but growing up as a spirited, independent woman Maria would go on to run her own voice production studio.
At 28 she married accountant Arnold Dickin and by the outbreak of the First World War was heavily involved in social work in the capital’s slums. Yet along with her concern about human poverty Maria became increasingly distressed by the number of animals for whom there was no one to care “when they are sick, ill or in pain”.
In her book The Cry Of The Animal, Maria recalled: “In the streets were many dogs and cats walking on three legs, dragging along a broken or injured limb; others nearly blind with mange; covered with sores; nearly all looking dejected and miserable and searching for food in the gutter.
“The suffering and misery of these poor, uncared-for creatures in our overcrowded areas was a revelation to me. I had no idea it existed and it made me indescribably miserable.”
Maria herself was childless but did own a pet dog. One night when it fell very ill she noticed it let out a terrible weary sob. She recalled: “It struck me, what is the difference between that sob and the sob of poor suffering humanity?”
It was then that she decided to do something practical to help. But her idea of opening free dispensaries where the poor could bring their sick animals wasn’t universally popular.
Naysayers, including many in the veterinary establishment, didn’t think the poor cared enough for their animals to bring them to a clinic. Some felt that they shouldn’t even be allowed to keep them in the first place.
But to her critics Maria retorted: “You obviously know nothing about poor people. You seem to forget that poor people do not only keep animals as pets but as a means of earning their living – people such as costermongers, hawkers and small roundsmen.”
As well as the working animals she pointed out that the homes of the poor would be “overrun with vermin if they did not keep a cat,” while for many keeping dogs provided security.
Maria now resolved: “If you want anything done – do it yourself!” In 1917 she persuaded a vicar to lend her a 13ft-square basement in crowded Whitechapel to open her first dispensary. She also managed to recruit an experienced animal practitioner who had attended to the pets of royalty.
The day’s patients included a cat with mange, a dog with a broken leg and a limping donkey – all were soon treated successfully.
News quickly spread and before long Maria’s clinic was inundated with creatures from parrots to monkeys in need of aid. Better premises were quickly found and soon 100 animals a day were being treated, whether it was removing splinters from paws or mending broken limbs.
Donations started pouring in too – Maria had to stop one woman handing over her wedding ring. But she was known to pawn her own jewellery to raise funds, while clearing out her husband’s wardrobe for jumble sales, claiming he had no need for 30 pairs of trousers.
By 1922 the PDSA had opened seven clinics across London, treating 70,000 animals a year.
Determined to take her service nationwide Maria had a horsedrawn caravan transformed into a dispensary touring the country. There was soon a fleet of them followed by clinics across the UK and branches overseas.
In 1928 a unique animal hospital was established in Ilford where staff were trained too. Most were not professional vets but Maria said: “To claim that knowledge of and capacity to treat ailments of animals are possessed by veterinary surgeons alone is as ridiculous as to suggest that none but an admitted solicitor or barrister has any knowledge of the law.” She lambasted the sniffy Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons adding: “If you are so concerned about the proper treatment of sick animals of the poor, open your own dispensaries. Instead of spending your energy and time in hindering us, spend it in dealing with this mass of misery.”
DESCRIBED as dressing “like a character from Dickens” Maria was a striking figure, able to hold audiences in her thrall with rousing speeches. She was an expert at publicity too, organising a record-breaking 10-ton Christmas pudding to be made for a seasonal bazaar and in 1934 she started the Busy Bees club to teach children how to take care of their pets.
By the outbreak of the Second World War the PDSA could boast five animal hospitals, 71 dispensaries and 11 mobile caravan dispensaries. During the Blitz their rescue squads helped more than 250,000 pets injured or buried in rubble.
But Maria wanted to go even further, recognising the bravery of thousands of animals serving with the military and civil defence forces.
In 1943 she established the Dickin Medal for any animal “displaying Thursday November 2 2017 conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty whilst serving with the British Commonwealth Armed Forces or civil emergency services”.
The first recipient of the bronze medal, inscribed with the words “For Gallantry” and “We Also Serve”, was a pigeon called White Vision which had battled bad weather over 60 miles to deliver a message that led to the rescue of a ditched aircrew. To date the “Victoria Cross for animals” has been awarded 68 times to 32 pigeons, 31 dogs, four horses and one cat.
After the war the PDSA finally came to an accommodation with the veterinary profession, bringing Maria’s mission full circle. She died on March 1, 1951, aged 80.
However for many years her role in promoting animal welfare was largely forgotten. Then in 2015 a campaign to honour her work led to the unveiling of a commemorative blue plaque by English Heritage on the house where she was born: 41 Cassland Road, Hackney.
Her legacy is certainly alive and well in the charity she set up – since dubbed the “animal NHS”.
Today the PDSA operates a network of 48 hospitals providing treatment to nearly 500,000 pets a year and helping to achieve Maria’s vision that: “Animals too must have a better world to live in.” For more information visit pdsa.org.uk