Friday, 27 June 2008
Media release: National Anti Vivisection Campaign

Animal rights activists claim victory: vivisection conference cancelled in Auckland

A conference on animal experiments due to take place this weekend has been abruptly cancelled after the Ellerslie Event Centre refused to host the event.

ANZCCART (the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching) is the main pro-vivisection lobby group in Australasia. This year their annual conference was due to be held in Auckland from Sunday June 29th to Tuesday July 1st at the Ellerslie Events Centre, 100 Ascot Avenue, Greenlane, Auckland. Yesterday ANZCCART advised attendees  the conference was cancelled due to Ellerslie Event Centre being "nervous of protest action".

Mark Eden of the National Anti Vivisection Campaign says, "We're not surprised that Ellerslie Event Centre has withdrawn their support for ANZCCART. Once people find out that doing business with animal experimenters means protests, disruption and bad publicity, they're pretty quick to disassociate themselves from ANZCCART ".

Eden continues, "This is the second time that the animal research conference has lost its venue. In 2005 the ANZCCART conference was due to be held at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. But they pulled out once they realised there was serious opposition".

"Over 300,000 live animals are experimented on each year in New Zealand. Of those approximately 17, 000 of those are subject to very severe suffering. Painful mutilations, electric shocks, lethal toxicological procedures, cutting, freezing and burning - even without pain relief - are legal. Many laboratory animals are forcibly restrained to undergo cruel experiments.

Animal research in this country is shrouded in secrecy. Although most of the research is funded with public money, few details are released. This is disgusting and ethically unacceptable. We are pleased that this event has been cancelled. ANZZCCART must be embarrassed that they can't secure a venue due to the controversy surrounding animal experimentation".

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