Portuguese-born artist Paula Rego was sent to the UK to escape from Salazar’s fascist dictatorship and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, winning the 1954 summer composition prize. In 1961 she exhibited two works with the WIAC. Her first solo exhibition in Lisbon in 1965, combining elements of abstraction, surrealism and pop art, criticised Salazar’s regime. This painting, inspired by a rumour that stray dogs were being poisoned in the streets of Barcelona, when Spain was under Franco’s dictatorship, challenges the city authorities’ callous disregard for animal and human life. Rego’s work continued to address oppression - particularly of women - and contained a strong, narrative element, including visceral, unflinching depictions of back-street abortions that helped change Portuguese law.