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Lewis Carroll Vivisection and Animal ExperimentsAlice in Wonderland Writer Championed Animal Welfare
Lewis Carroll, the writer of "Alice in Wonderland" was a kindly and religious man. He was also an early opponent of vivisection.
In a paper printed in the “Fortnightly Review” in 1875, Carroll used logic to argue against the practice of animal experimentation. Although attitudes to animals were very different in those days, his views are still interesting now. Brutalising EffectOne of his main objections to vivisection was the brutalising effect it had on the experimenter, he said. And although scientists claimed that vivisection could help find cures for human diseases, he thought scientists were often keener to advance their research, using possible future “benefits to mankind” as an excuse. He ended up summing up his views and giving the detailed explanations for why he thought them. Here is how he set them out: Carroll’s Views In Summary“That while we do not deny the absolute right of man to end the lives of the lower animals by a painless death, we require good and sufficient cause to be shown for all infliction of pain. “That the prevention of suffering to a human being does not justify the infliction of a greater amount of suffering on an animal. “That the chief evil of the practice of vivisection consists in its effect on the moral character of the operator ; and that this effect is distinctly demoralising and brutalising. “That hard work and the endurance of hardships are no proof of an unselfish work motive. “That the toleration of one form of an evil is no excuse for tolerating another” A Terrible DangerHe went on to make a point which has a special resonance now, over a hundred years later. He said it was easy to be selfish and indifferent when you assumed that “the practice of vivisection will never be extended so as to include human subjects” “Him That Hath No Helper”But this casualness would suddenly disappear if people could realise that it laid the way open for medicine to claim “as legitimate subjects for experiment, first, our condemned criminals—next, perhaps, the inmates of our refuges for incurables—then the hopeless lunatic, the pauper hospital-patient, and generally "him that hath no helper" FrankensteinFinally, he said, “scientists, “trained from their earliest years to the repression of all human sympathies, shall have developed a new and more hideous Frankenstein—a soulless being to whom science shall be all in all.” In this, as in many other matters, Carroll seemed almost to look into the future; with the Nazis just sixty years ahead. Charitable HelpCarroll’s bank account shows that he supported charities that helped lessen the sufferings of animals. They included the Society for the Prevention of Animals (now the RSPCA), The Dogs' Temporary Home (now the Battersea Dogs' Home) and the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, which now focuses on work in Third World countries but in those days provided troughs of water for the animals which hauled all traffic in Britain's streets. Practical HelpAlthough his early upbringing was on a smallholding, where attitudes to animals were no-nonsense, he still cared for those which suffered. He once took the trouble to take a kitten with a fish hook stuck in its mouth to a doctor friend, offering to pay him to remove the hook. And although in Victorian days, mice, rats and bugs were much more serious pests than now, he had special mouse traps made so that the mice infesting his rooms could be killed humanely. A Protective PersonalityHis views were thought rather eccentric at the time, but to those who knew him they characterized the protectiveness that seemed to be such a feature of his personality. For a lighter side to Carroll's ideas, look at his Games Riddles and Puzzles and on his life see The Mystery of Lewis Carroll
The copyright of the article Lewis Carroll Vivisection and Animal Experiments in Children’s Books is owned by Jenny Woolf. Permission to republish Lewis Carroll Vivisection and Animal Experiments in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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