One woman's crusade
Frances Power Cobbe (1822 to 1904) was a formidable women’s rights campaigner and a philanthropist with a successful journalistic and literary career. She first became aware of the suffering of animals during scientific experiments in 1863 when her travels across Europe brought her into contact with it.
Frances Power Cobbe didn’t believe that the advancement of science could be justified by the means from which it was obtained. She wrote articles and spoke at public meetings advocating that the good of mankind does not justify the ‘torture’ of animals.
Vivisection became a major public issue in the last quarter of the 19th century and an organised opposition movement emerged. With this came the formation of a number of so-called ‘anti-vivisection societies’.� On June 14th 1898 five of these were immediately incorporated into the Union and the number of branches grew steadily over the years. The Union grew until, in 1940, there were no fewer than 154 branches – including six in Australia and one in New Zealand.
