Canine distemper used to be a common disease among dogs in the UK. It is caused by a virus
and is very easily spread. Over 80% of puppies that become infected will die, in Britain before
vaccination became available over 200,000 puppies a year died from distemper
The research carried out to during the 1920's to develop the canine distemper vaccine was vehemently opposed by the various organisations opposed to animal research. The anti-vivisection group attempted to introduce several Dog Protection Bills into the House of Commons that would have outlawed any medical research involving dogs.
If any of these attempts had succeeded then the search for a vaccine would have been brought to an abrupt halt. Fortunately an alliance between the Medical Research Committee, the forerunner of the present day Medical Research Council, the Royal College of Medicine, the Royal College of Veterinarians and several other scientific bodies managed to pursuaed the Government to withdraw or oppose these Bills.
The research scientists and medical practitioners were joined in their opposition to these Bills by The Field, a country magazine that raised funds to support the research. The Research Defence Society, a scientific society which seeks to explain the continued necessity for animal research, co-ordinated the scientific community's campaign to be allowed to develop the canine distemper vaccine.
The list of medical and animal care advances which have needed animal research is too long to detail here,
indeed it is difficult to think of any major advance in vaccinations, drug therapy,
transplant surgery, surgical procedures and many other fields of medicine that have been made
without the use of animal research.
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