14 July 2004

Anti vivisection campaigners expect report to be a "meaningless PR stunt"

Anti vivisection campaigners are expecting this years annual report into animal research to be 'another meaningless PR stunt'. The Ministry of Agriculture will release the annual report of the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee tomorrow.

Mark Eden, of the National Anti Vivisection Campaign, says previous annual reports have no detail about what really happens in laboratories in New Zealand, and he is expecting this one to be the same.

"Once a year, this bland report comes out, and that is all we are given. Hundreds of thousands of animals are being killed in experiments all over the country, and the institutions that carry out these experiments, often with public money, refuse to release detailed information on the types of experiments being carried out" he said.

"The Annual Report is merely a PR stunt, designed to reassure the public that animal researchers are benign and harmless animal lovers who can be trusted to regulate themselves without any independent public scrutiny".

"The law provides for anonymous 'animal ethics committees' made up mostly of animal researchers, who meet in secret and approve experiments without any oversight or public input. Why should we have any faith in this system? If animal researchers are convinced that what they are doing is ethically and scientifically justifiable, why is it all done in secret? Why isn't the public allowed to know?"

"Animals are dying in disgusting, pointless experiments in labs up and down the country. The vivisection industry relies on secrecy because they know they cannot justify what they are doing. The government is supporting animal cruelty by continuing to fund and defend the vivisection industry." said Mr Eden.

The National Anti Vivisection Campaign is the only organisation in New Zealand focusing solely on actively campaigning for the abolition of vivisection. NAVC opposes all harmful research on animals, on ethical and scientific grounds. Contact us for background information on local vivisection in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.

ENDS

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