Anti vivisection group says officials are misleading the public about animal experiments.

For immediate release - 5 September 2006

Anti vivisection activists say the government committee on animal experiments is misleading the public and should be sacked. The annual report of the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC) was released today, showing the numbers of animals used in experiments and the number of animals subjected to severe suffering is increasing. Despite this the committee claims things are improving for animals.

The National Anti Vivisection Campaign Spokesperson Mark Eden says NAEAC officials should be sacked.

“Every single year NAEAC comes out with the same rubbish about how robust and independent the ethics committee system is and how things are improving for animals in labs. The truth is that things are getting worse because every single person on the NAEAC committee is either directly involved in vivisection or a staunch supporter of vivisection.”

“Researchers with a vested interest dominate each animal ethics committee in the country, the meetings and records are all secret, and there is no independent scrutiny of what goes on in animal laboratories”.

“There is a growing opposition to vivisection among the scientific and medial community because animal experiments are inaccurate and misleading when used as models for human disease or safety testing. Here in New Zealand we have a government whose animal welfare advisors are either incompetents or in the pay of the vivisection industry. It’s an absolute disgrace that the government pays these people to write reports and put out press releases saying there’s nothing to worry about and everything is going to be OK for animals in laboratories. It is time we got rid of them, both for the animals and for the sake of scientific and medical progress” said Mr Eden.

The National Anti Vivisection Campaign is New Zealand’s only animal rights group solely focused on campaigning against animal experimentation. Based in Wellington, it collates information on animal experiments in New Zealand, produces report and assists activists with non-violent direct action campaigns against vivisection.

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