Sidney George Trist was born in
Newton Abbot, Devon, in the third quarter of 1865.[2] He later moved to
Wandsworth, London, where he married Florence Mogg in 1893;[3] they had four children.[4]
Trist was the editor of the Animal World,[5] and Animals' Friend.[6] He was also the secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society (later the London and Provincial Anti-vivisection Society),[7] and the editor of its publication, the Animals' Guardian.[8] He was later elected to serve on the
Battersea Dogs' Home committee, where he "ensured that its policy of never selling any dog to a vivisector was maintained".[7] 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.[9]
In 1894, Trist published his first pamphlet, A Birds-Eye View of a Great Question, which advocated
against vivisection.[10] This was followed by pamphlets
critical of vaccination (focusing on the
rabies vaccine particularly): Pasteurism Discredited,[11] and A Rational Cure for Hydrophobia,[12] as well as others on anti-vivisection: The Danger to Hospital Patients in the Practice of Vivisection,[13] and A Cloud of Witnesses.[14] Mark Twain wrote a letter to Trist in 1899, condemning vivisection; Trist widely circulated the letter in the press and had many copies printed as a pamphlet by the London Anti-Vivisection Society.[15]
In 1901, Trist published his first book, Birds and Beasts Within Our Gates: A Book for Animal Lovers.[16] In 1904, he published Dog Stories, which included the works of
Émile Zola,[17] with an introduction by
Jerome K. Jerome.[18] Trist provided the preface to
Albert Leffingwell's 1908 book The Vivisection Controversy.[19]
In 1913, Trist published an illustrated collection of essays, The Under Dog: A Series of Papers by Various Authors on the Wrongs Suffered by Animals at the Hands of Man;[6] Trist 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."[6]: 6 The book was reviewed in several newspapers.[20][21][22] J. Keri Cronin asserts that Trist recognised the significance of visuals in education and advocacy, emphasizing the effectiveness of teaching through visuals, rather than sound and, as a result, made illustrations a prominent feature in the publications he edited.[6]: 49 In the same year, he published Tell Me a Story, a selection of fiction on animals by various authors.[23]
Trist died on 2 December 1918,[24] at the age of 53, in Wandsworth.[25]
Selected publications
A Birds-Eye View of a Great Question (1894)
Pasteurism Discredited: What Scientific and Medical Witnesses Assert (1895)
A Rational Cure for Hydrophobia: Buissonism versus Pasteurism: A Contrast and a Moral (1896)
The Danger to Hospital Patients in the Practice of Vivisection (1896)
A Cloud of Witnesses (
c. 1899)
Birds and Beasts Within Our Gates: A Book for Animal Lovers (1901)