Lizzy Lind af Hageby

Who was Lizzy Lind af Hageby?

Emilie Augusta Louise "Lizzy" Lind af Hageby was a Swedish feminist and animal rights advocate. She moved to England in 1902, where she became one of the country's most prominent anti-vivisection activists. She was the co-author with Leisa Schartau of The Shambles of Science: Extracts from the Diary of Two Students of Physiology, co-founded the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, and ran an animal sanctuary at Ferne House in Dorset with the Duchess of Hamilton. She also founded The Anti-Vivisection Review in 1909, a journal she edited for 40 years.

Born into a distinguished Swedish family, she first came to public attention after she and Schartau decided in 1902 to study at the London School of Medicine for Women. In February 1903 they infiltrated the vivisection in University College London of a brown terrier dog they said was dissected while conscious before an audience of medical students, then included a vivid description of it in The Shambles of Science. The researcher insisted the dog had been anaesthetized and won a much-publicized libel suit. The ensuing controversy, known as the Brown Dog affair, lasted seven years and famously led to riots in London when 1,000 medical students, angered by the description of their work, clashed with police, suffragettes, and trade unionists.