Dr Perry commenced service with the University in August 1967 as Lecturer in Animal Husbandry in the Department of Animal Husbandry at Langford, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1984.

Dr Perry graduated in Agriculture from Bangor in 1961 and gained his PhD there in 1964. He then undertook a period of postdoctoral study at Bangor and Raleigh. In 1993 the three departments at Langford merged to form the School of Clinical Veterinary Science, and in 1996 Dr Perry was appointed Head of the Division of Animal Health and Husbandry in the School. In 1998 he was appointed Deputy Head of School until his retirement in August 2003.

Dr Perry worked in two major areas of research during his time at Bristol. He studied the influence of environmental (especially lighting) and physiological factors on sexual maturity and egg production in poultry, while in the 1970s and 80s he made groundbreaking contributions to knowledge of the role of pheromones in mammalian reproduction. He was the first to establish the existence of a mammalian chemical communication system and his work is still widely cited as classic contributions to the field.