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Canine Heroes and Medals


 

During the Second World War, medical researchers and antivivisectionists drafted animals, primarily dogs, as partisans in the struggle over animal experimentation. With the rise of Cold War, pervasive anticommunism and fears of atomic annihilation moved animals and animal experimentation to center stage, mediating fierce conflicts over medical research and international politics.


  NLM, Hygeia, (1946, 24:434-5)
Medical researchers, and their allies in the armed forces, awarded military-style medals to animals in laboratories to emphasize the martial significance of animal experimentation. Here, Army Surgeon General Major General Norman T. Kirk, on behalf of the Friends of Medical Research, bestows medals upon research dogs Trixie and Josie "for outstanding services to humanity."
(NLM, Hygeia, 1946, 24:434-5)


  A Medal for Bowzer
(NLM, MS C 417, Box 23)
comic strip
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Last reviewed: 24 October 2006
Last updated: 24 October 2006
First published: 14 July 2006
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