Press Release:

Animal Rights Activists to Take Action Against Animal Testing on World Lab Animal Day

Auckland Animal Action  
Thursday 24th April, 2008

At 12.30pm this afternoon Auckland Animal Action will be protesting outside a prominent central Auckland animal testing laboratory for World Lab Animal Day. The protest is aimed at informing  the public about the cruel and unnecessary experiments carried out in secret underground laboratories. The activists believe the only thing which allows the testing to continue is the complete secrecy which surrounds it.

Auckland Animal Action spokesperson Kali Sandbrook says, "over 200,000 animals are used in animal testing every year in New Zealand with almost no public scrutiny. These experiments are carried out behind locked doors where animals are brutally tortured far from the public's eye. If the public saw these experiments they would be shocked and sickened."

She continues, "We believe that many of these experiments are more about keeping scientists in jobs than curing disease. For example one senior cancer researcher Bruce Bagley even admitted in court that his research had no relevance to humans. His research involved routinely causing cancer in mice, these animals are suffering and dying in vain."

"Animal testing is not only ethically wrong, it is also wasteful and scientifically invalid. Most of these animal experiments are not done to cure diseases but they are done for the sake of profit. It's time to stop animal testing!"

This protest draws to a close World Lab Animal Week that saw action against vivisectors in Auckland. Earlier this week, Auckland Animal Action launched their campaign against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with a weekend home demonstration and office demonstration on Monday. There is an international campaign  against GSK for their involvement in animal testing and their use of UK based contract animal testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). This is part of a world wide effort to close down HLS.

For details of the demonstration location please contact Auckland Animal Action on 021 - 175 - 1399 after 12.15pm.

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