AAA supports the liberation of six dogs from Jennersmead farm

Last Tuesday evening the Animal Liberation Front liberated six dogs from Jennersmead farm, owned by Massey University. In an anonymous communiqué sent to Auckland Animal Action, the ALF claim the dogs were confined in tiny barren cages, but are now being rehabilitated in a safe loving home.

Jennersmead farm is run by the Animal Health Services Centre, which Massey University advertises as a contract animal research center. According to information obtained by the National Anti Vivisection Campaign under the Official Information Act, Massey University maintains a small dog-breeding unit at Jennersmead farm with about 40-50 animals. They are used for biological, medical and veterinary experiments.

In 2001 papers were obtained which showed that in one experiment alone, Massey University subjected six dogs to 'severe suffering' in a surgical experiment. Massey killed 8 dogs in 2004, and 124 in 2003.

Spokesperson for AAA, Rochelle Rees says “We find it very hard to believe that Jennersmead farm is not a vivisection facility, at the very least we know that they are breeding animals for vivisection.”

The head of the Massey University Veterinary School, Professor Grant Guilford claims that no vivisection is carried out at Jennersmead farm, however he admits the dogs were being studied in an attempt to find a cure for mucopolysaccharidosis, a genetic disease also seen in humans.

Ms Rees says, “If these dogs were simply being unobtrusively and humanely studied, then surely far more valid and useful research could be carried out on humans suffering the disease?”

Prof Guilford admits that there is no cure to the disease suffered by some of the dogs, yet he claims that Animal Activists have condemned these dogs to death. Ms Rees says, “We are totally opposed to keeping animals confined in cages, and as such we believe the dogs will be better off spending the rest of their lives in a loving home, where they will never be experimented on, and where we are confident that they will have access to good veterinary care.

“We believe that all animals at Jennersmead farm are at risk of being experimented on, and therefore we commend the actions of the activists who carried out this liberation.”

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