Guinea Pigs Campaign To Stop
"The Concerned Teachers Management Committee has agreed not to use any more live guinea pigs or other animals such as were used to disrupt the Minister of Education's speech to the PPTA Annual Conference on Wednesday" said Concerned Teachers spokesperson Peter Calvert.
"Following Mallard's speech at the Quality Hotel in Wellington two Concerned Teachers who had penetrated security at the Conference released guinea pigs into the hall when pushed out. The aggressive reaction of PPTA staff led to a situation that was somewhat stressful for the animals"
Mr Calvert stated that we still believe that teachers should not be used - along with their students - as 'guinea pigs' for the Minister's educational experiments.
"However it is noticeable that people (correctly) sticking up for animal rights are much more vociferous than those advocating for children's rights. Where is the Commissioner for Children in this issue, for example?"
"However after hearing from the RSPCA, we acknowledge the concerns of animal rights groups about using guinea pigs in this way. After consideration we have agreed not to use live animals in any more of our protests. In future we will make our point with make believe guinea pigs, rather than live animals," said Mr Calvert.
For More information contact:
Peter Calvert 021 2111 825
E-mail ConcernedTeachers@xtra.co.nz
Website www.concernedteachers.com