Furor Over Animal Research

          The blue baby surgery aroused the ire of animal rights activists, who believed that dogs, even though they were anesthetized or put to sleep beforehand, should not be used in medical research to improve the health of humans. In the late 1940s, the physicians for animal research knew that the Maryland Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals was destroying around 14,000 frightened stray dogs and cats each year. The dogs and cats were thrown together in large containers with poisonous agents piped in until they died, which is why the Baltimore doctors reasoned that some of the animals could be utilized to advance medical research.

This photo shows a controversial and rowdy Baltimore hearing in 1949 with 3,000 to 4,000 contentious people in eager attendance. The activists wanted Baltimore to ban animals from experimental medical research while the physicians and the military wanted to maintain animal research, fearful that medical progress would suffer and that the Baltimore hospitals and medical schools would lose their standing in the research world. Ultimately, the Baltimore city council voted to continue the use of stray animals for medical research.