Sidney Trist


Sidney George Trist MJI was an English activist, journalist, and editor. He advocated for animal welfare and vegetarianism, and opposed vivisection and vaccination. Trist edited several animal welfare periodicals, including The Animal World, The Animals' Friend, and The Animals' Guardian, served as secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society, and was a committee member of Battersea Dogs' Home. He wrote and edited a number of pamphlets and books, among them A Birds-Eye View of a Great Question, Birds and Beasts Within Our Gates, and the illustrated essay collection The Under Dog. His use of visual imagery in advocacy was later noted by scholars, and in 2017 the historian Hilda Kean dedicated her book The Great [Cat and Dog Massacre] to him.

Biography

Early life

Sidney George Trist was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, in the third quarter of 1865. His father was George Dyer Trist. He later moved to Wandsworth, London.

Career

Early activism and pamphlets

Trist began his public career as an anti-vivisection campaigner and pamphleteer. In 1894, he published his first tract, A Birds-Eye View of a Great Question, which argued against vivisection. He went on to issue several pamphlets critical of vaccination, particularly the rabies vaccine, including Pasteurism Discredited and A Rational Cure for Hydrophobia. Other works from this period included The Danger to Hospital Patients in the Practice of Vivisection and A Cloud of Witnesses. Mark Twain wrote a letter to Trist in 1899 condemning vivisection. Trist widely circulated the letter in the press and arranged for many copies to be printed as a pamphlet by the London Anti-Vivisection Society.

Editorial and organisational roles

Trist was the editor of the animal welfare periodicals The ''Animal World and The Animals' Friend. He was also the secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society, and the editor of its publication, The Animals' Guardian''. He was later elected to the committee of Battersea Dogs' Home, where he "ensured that its policy of never selling any dog to a vivisector was maintained". Trist's advocacy for vegetarianism in the journals he edited resulted in his alienation by some anti-vivisectionists, who viewed his stance as too radical.

Books and collaborations

In 1901, Trist published his first book, Birds and Beasts Within Our Gates: A Book for Animal Lovers. In 1904, he published Dog Stories, which included works by Émile Zola and an introduction by Jerome K. Jerome. Trist also provided the preface to Albert Leffingwell's The Vivisection Controversy in 1908. In 1911, when 16 bishops and other clergy joined the pro-vivisection Research Defence Society, Trist condemned their decision in a 5,000-word open letter, invoking imagery of Christ in a laboratory to criticise their stance.

''The Under Dog'' and final works

In 1913, Trist published The Under Dog, an illustrated collection of essays that explored the injustices animals endure as a result of human actions. He wrote that the essays "justify this effort to expose to the eyes of humanity the naked horrors which abound in their midst, and to which they are either blind or indifferent". The book was reviewed in several newspapers. In the same year, he published Tell Me a Story, a collection of animal-themed fiction by various authors.

Personal life and death

Trist married Florence Mogg on 28 October 1893 at All Saints Church, Wandsworth. They had four children: three sons and one daughter.
Trist died on 2 December 1918 in Wandsworth, aged 53. He was buried on 6 December at Torquay Cemetery, Devon.

Legacy

J. Keri Cronin has observed that Trist recognised the importance of visual education in advocacy, making illustrations a prominent feature in his publications.
The historian Hilda Kean dedicated her 2017 book The Great Cat and Dog Massacre to Trist.

Selected publications

Author

  • A Birds-Eye View of a Great Question
  • Pasteurism Discredited: What Scientific and Medical Witnesses Assert
  • A Rational Cure for Hydrophobia: Buissonism versus Pasteurism: A Contrast and a Moral
  • The Danger to Hospital Patients in the Practice of Vivisection
  • A Cloud of Witnesses

    Editor

  • The Animal World
  • The ''Animals' Friend
  • The Animals' Guardian
  • Dog Stories
  • Birds and Beasts Within Our Gates: A Book for Animal Lovers
  • The Under Dog: A Series of Papers by Various Authors on the Wrongs Suffered by Animals at the Hands of Man
  • Tell Me a Story''