28 August 2007

Group seeks beagle research moratorium Petition to ban dog and cat experiments launched

An immediate moratorium on beagle research is being sought by New Zealand’s second largest animal advocacy organisation SAFE, following last night’s exposé by current affairs programme 60 Minutes.

SAFE has launched an online petition calling for New Zealand to prohibit of the use of dogs and cats in experiments. The petition (www.banbeagleexperiments.org.nz ) also calls for an independent inquiry into the failure of Animal Welfare Ethics Committees to prevent duplicate, redundant and superfluous research from being carried out.

SAFE’s four-month investigation into Valley Animal Research Centre (VARC), the breeding and research facility mentioned in the 60 Minutes programme, reveals beagles living in appalling conditions.

“The conditions in which these animals are housed are poor and who knows what terrible fate awaits them,” says SAFE campaign director Hans Kriek.

”Beagles are the vivisectors’ choice of dog because they are gentle and easy to handle. What a way to repay these trusting animals. Anyone who has ever had a dog as a companion will be able to relate to the terrible suffering of these animals,” says Mr Kriek.

SAFE’s online petition allows New Zealanders to support calls for laboratory dogs and cats to be given the same legal protection as those kept as companion animals. The petition also seeks to prevent duplicate and superfluous experiments currently being approved by ethics committees.

Undercover footage of the beagles is available on request.
Visit www.banbeagleexperiments.org.nz

Beagle research in New Zealand

Background information

The company at the centre of last night’s program is Valley Animal Research Centre (VARC).

A four-month SAFE investigation reveals that VARC’s facilities are holding close to 200 beagles in very basic, barren kennels.

SAFE understands VARC also breeds or intends to breed other companion animals for research, including cats, horses and rabbits.

VARC has been quietly expanding its operations and now has extensive facilities in the Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu regions.

VARC is one of the largest suppliers of companion animals for laboratory testing in the Southern Hemisphere.

VARC is headed by Canadian toxicologist Alan Goldenthal, a former director of Pasteur Merioux’s Animal Resources and Pathology Centre in Canada and research director of Massey University-owned Estendart Limited in Palmerston North.

VARC is a contract facility that provides animal experimentation services to national and international clients.

SAFE believes animal experimentation is cruel and a waste of valuable research money that should be used for more reliable, non-animal based research. By Goldenthal’s own admission, only 0.1 per cent of products that are pre-clinically tested on animals reach the market.

Goldenthal also admits to knowing research conducted in New Zealand involving animals is redundant, complementary or sequential to studies being performed elsewhere. As a contracted service provider, he believes he cannot make comments to other researchers nor to the client commissioning the research.

SAFE believes Goldenthal’s comments are a damning indictment of the ineffectiveness of New Zealand’s animal ethics committees, who are charged with preventing duplicate research.

SAFE has had difficulty determining precisely what type of experimentation the beagles will endure but understands that male contraception drug tests are being carried out on a number of dogs.

SAFE is calling on Jim Anderton, the Minister responsible for administering the Animal Welfare Act, to launch an inquiry into the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee’s failure to prevent the unnecessary use of animals in experiments and to see a ban on the use of cats and dogs as research animals.

More information: visit: (www.banbeagleexperiments.org.nz )

ENDS

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