mighty aphrodite

Woman of the Day social reformer and animal welfare pioneer Maria Dickin, born OTD 1870 in Hackney, who was branded as “dangerous” by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons after she founded the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals for working class people who couldn’t afford vets fees. Feeling constrained by marriage and domestic responsibilities, Maria became a volunteer social worker in the slums of the East End helping women and children hit hardest by the poverty and deprivation brought about by WW1, yet poor people depended on their animals: donkeys and ponies as working animals and dogs and cats as pet companions. “I was amazed and horrified to see the sufferings of these animals. In the streets were many dogs and cats walking on three legs, dragging along a broken or injured limb; others nearly blind with mange or covered with sores; nearly all looking dejected and miserable and searching for food in the gutter.” “The suffering of my own dog became not only symbolic of all the animal misery I was witnessing in our slums, but also of the vaster world of animal pain whose cry nobody seemed to hear.” Never one to sit still at home and knit, she enlisted the help of a local clergyman who gave her the use of his small cellar and in November 1917, she hung a notice outside. “Bring your sick animals. Do not let them suffer. All animals treated. All treatment free.” The PDSA was born. On Day 1, there were four animal patients. One was a donkey with an injured leg and although Maria had no veterinary experience, she’d talked a sympathetic vet into helping. The donkey’s owner was so grateful, he conducted a one-man PR campaign. Critics said the poor wouldn’t bring their animals, either because they didn’t care or because they were too busy trying to look after themselves, but they were wrong. As word spread, crowds of people queued for hours at Maria’s clinic. By 1926–27, the PDSA was operating 57 clinics plus three travelling caravan clinics, and was treating almost 41,000 animal patients a year. It didn’t go down well in veterinary circles. The Secretary of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons sniffed, “The lady [Maria Dickin] is dangerous and energetic; the RSPCA is timid and apathetic.” She retorted, "If you are so concerned about the proper treatment of Sick Animals of the Poor, do the same work we are doing. Instead of spending your energy and time in hindering us, spend it in dealing with this mass of misery." She was variously described as “an abscess in need of lancing”, “a thorn in the side of the veterinary profession” - or simply “That woman”. (Does that sound familiar?). By the time WW2 started, she’d founded five animal hospitals, 71 dispensaries and eleven mobile caravans. The PDSA attended to over 250,000 pets injured during the Blitz. In 1943, Maria established the Dickin Medal honouring the valour and service of animals during WW2 or in civil emergencies. It was awarded 54 times in six years: 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, three horses - and Simon the cat. Simon, a stray who served on HMS Amethyst and slept in the captain's hat, carried on with his duties of stopping rats from eating the limited food stores and keeping up morale despite being very badly injured when the ship was bombarded by shelling. Maria died in 1951 aged 80. “If you want something doing, do it yourself!”