Vivisection in New Zealand

Once a year, the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC) releases a bland annual report. The report is designed to reassure the public that animal researchers are benign and harmless animal lovers who can be trusted to regulate themselves without any independent public scrutiny.

To obtain details of what is really happening in vivisection laboratories around New Zealand, it is necessary to trawl through scientific journals and spend months arguing with officials in order to obtain documents through the Official Information Act.

The following information is a summary of some of the animal research underway in the main centres around the country. Please note that it is compiled from the 2004 animal usage statistics which are the most recent statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Taxpayer funded vivisection at AgResearch
AgResearch is the single biggest user of animals in experiments in New Zealand. According to figures obtained under the Official Information Act, the Crown Research Organisation used 61160 animals in experiments in 2004 (The previous years total was 55928). Species used included cattle, mice, sheep, deer. rats, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, possums and small numbers of other animals.

74 cattle, 22 sheep and 33 mice were listed as ‘transgenic’. This total does not include “normal’ animals being experimented on in order to create transgenic animals. 55 animals (ferrets, mice, rats) were subjected to ‘severe’ suffering and 473 animals (possums, rabbits, rats) were subjected to ‘very severe’ suffering.

The most well known AgResearch experiments have been the production of genetically modified cattle. Gene transfer experiments involve a high degree of severe suffering to the cloned animals and the surrogate mothers. Most transgenic embryonic transfers are unsuccessful, and many result in spontaneous abortion of fully conscious foetuses, infections in the mothers, and stress to the embryo donors. Foetuses that survive to term are often larger than calves born through natural means, requiring a traumatic caesarian operation on the mother. Allowing the suffering of sentient animals for simple economic gain in this way can only be described as ethically repugnant.

In recent years AgResearch have conducted internal parasite research in sheep. This involves monitoring the activity of parasites inside the sheep by surgical manipulations. In these experiments sheep are subjected to "cut and paste" operations where sections of their intestines are cut out and separated from the rest of the gut so that researchers can conduct experiments inside the intestines. Invasive operations like this cause severe suffering to the animals.

Animal Experiments in Auckland
Auckland University used 14974 animals in experiments during 2004. This is less than half the previous years total of 41091. Species used in 2004 included rats, mice rabbits, sheep and dogs. Some sheep and mice were subjected to ‘severe’ suffering. 67 mice were listed as transgenic.

For the first time in several years, Auckland University used 35 dogs in a veterinary experiment. They were obtained from a lab animal breeding unit (probably Massey University) and then “disposed of” which may mean they were put down or returned to the breeding unit.

It has proven extremely difficult to obtain details of specific experiments. For example, when NAVC requested the titles of research projects involving rabbit experiments by Auckland University vivisector (and NAEAC member) Simon Malpas, it took nearly two years of investigation by the Ombudsmens Office before the University agreed to release the information, which was by then no longer current.
Most experiments at Auckland University were classified as "Medical Research" even though many experts say using animals in medical research is wasteful and unreliable. Using animals as models for human disease is inherently unreliable because of the differences between humans and other species. For example, an artificially induced cancer tumour in a mouse is not an accurate model for cancer occurring in a sick human.

If we want to advance the cause of human medicine we should stop wasting money on torturing animals in labs and focus on safe ethical clinical studies of human disease.

Other organisations in Auckland using animals in experiments
Living Cell Technologies (formerly Diatranz) conducted trials of a new diabetes product in monkeys early this year. The monkey experiments were conducted overseas and therefore were not subject to MAF oversight so we have no further information.

Vivisection at Massey University
Massey University is one of the main vivisection centres in the country and some staff members hold influential positions in the animal welfare regulatory bodies. Massey Professor David Mellor is chairman of the Governments National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, and Senior Lecturer Kathleen Parton sits on the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee, responsible for overseeing all animal research in New Zealand.

14950 animals were used in experiments at Massey University in 2004. This is the lowest total in several years. Massey remains the only university in the country to experiment on cats and dogs. Other species used included rats, mice, sheep, cattle sheep, goats, rabbits, horses and deer. 50 possum were subjected to severe suffering in veterinary research and a small number of fish were also subjected to severe suffering.

The Massey University cat breeding unit holds about 200 cats and does similiar research into cat nutrition. In 2004 no cats were killed.

Massey maintains a small dog breeding unit with about 40-50 animals. They are used in small numbers for biological, medical, and veterinary experiments. In 2004, 8 dogs were killed and 53 were retained. The breeding unit supplements the population by buying from farms and commercial animal suppliers. A typical nutrition experiment at Massey involves dogs being kept in individual cages for a few months with an hours exercise a day if they are lucky, and then being killed and dissected so that scientists can study the contents of the stomach.

Massey University advertises its Animal Health Services Centre (AHSC) as New Zealands 'premier contract animal research centre'. This means the AHSC will conduct animal tests for anybody who has the money. The centre was established in 1986 and in the last five years an increasing amount of contract research has also been undertaken for overseas organisations. The AHSC provides the commercial farming and animal exploitation industries with access to the expertise and extensive animal research resources at Massey. The main areas of research offered by the centre relate to toxicity, 'safety' and residue determinations. In 2004 the AHSC used mice, rats and cattle, as well as 20 dogs in commercial research.

The Centre has a staff of 24, and is headed by Allen Goldenthal, a Canadian who describes himself as an 'in vivo' specialist. Goldenthal was involved in toxicity testing on animals at various overseas pharmaceutical companies before he became director of the AHSC.
The AHSC website boasts that they have access to the university's small animal (rabbits, rodents etc) breeding unit, a small dog colony, and a medium size cat colony. The AHSC advertises itself as offering "competitive pricing for academic research projects" and able to assist with "all your animal manipulation requirements".

Massey Professor David Mellor is Chair of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) and is the governments most senior advisor on animal welfare issues. Mr Mellor is also a vivisector with a particular interest in pain and stress experiments on animals.

The experiments carried out by Mellor and his colleagues aim to measure the suffering and stress that sheep and cattle go through as a part of normal farming operations. If no addition suffering was caused by these experiments, it could be argued that they would be advancing the cause of animal welfare by doing this research. Unfortunately for the animals involved, these experiments often involve more pain and suffering for animals than normal farm conditions.

In March 2002, an experiment examined the response of calves to different methods of castration (ring, band, surgical, or clamp) with or without local anaesthetic. All methods of castration caused significant pain and distress. Mr Mellor and his co researchers discovered that local anaesthetic reduced the pain and distress caused by castration. One wonders why several calves had to go through this painful procedure to record what seems to be a very obvious result.

Mellor and his team have also investigated the response of lamb to castration and tail docking, and carried out experiments where several different methods of dehorning cattle were compared.

Lincoln University and vivisection in Canterbury
Lincoln is the only university in the country to refuse to release even basic statistics about its animal research, claiming a risk their staff will be harassed. All other New Zealand Universities and many other animal research organisations have released figures showing the numbers and species of animals used in experiments last year.

Lincoln University obviously has something to hide if it is afraid to release even basic statistics. The information we requested does not contain any personal details that could identify staff. Every other University in the country releases this basic information, so what is Lincoln hiding?
Other Canterbury institutions using animals in experiments include Landcare Research, Canterbury University and the Christchurch School of Medicine.

Landcare Research conducts "pest control" research on animals. In 2004 painful experiments resulting in "severe" and "very severe" suffering were conducted on rats, possums, mice and fish.

Canterbury University used 13027 animals in 2004. 9365 were amphibians. The rest were fish, crustaceans, birds, rats and pigeons.

The Christchurch School of Medicine uses rabbits, sheep, horses, mice and rats in experiments. Very little detail is available about these experiments. NAVC believes the sheep are being used in heart surgery experiments.

Vivisection at Otago University
Otago University in Dunedin is one of the major vivisection centres in the country, and hosts a breeding centre which is vital to the vivisection industry nationally. In 2004, Otago University used 23962 animals in research and teaching. This is a big increase on the 13379 used in 2003. Animals used included 14891 mice, including 2614 genetically modified mice, 4194 rats, some of which were subjected to severe suffering, 3847 fish, 377 sheep and small numbers of guinea pigs, pigeons, pigs and possums.

The Otago University Animal Breeding Centre in Mosgiel is one of New Zealand's largest lab animal breeding centres. Every year they breed rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice for supply to vivisection labs around the country.

Detailed information on experiments at Otago University is difficult to obtain, but NAVC has obtained some information concerning a group of researchers headed by Professors Paul Smith and Cynthia Darlington who have carried out brain experiments on guineapigs at Otago for more than a decade.

The vestibular research group has carried out many experiments involved the study of Unilateral Labyrinthectomy (a surgical procedure in which the inner ear organs on one side of an animal's head are destroyed).

In one experiment, designed to test the effects of a protein called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) on the brains of guineapigs, 30 animals had a metal cannula inserted into the brain. The cannula was attached to the skull using screws and dental cement. A week later, on the day of the experiment, a mini pump and catheter were implanted under the skin of the shoulder blades, and a Unilateral Labyrinthectomy was carried out. This surgery involves opening up one side of the guineapig's head and using a dental drill to destroy the bones in the inner ear (responsible for balance). After surgery the animals were placed in separate boxes with perspex windows at the front. Video cameras were used to record the head and eye movements for up to 50 hours after surgery. BDNF was given in various doses to the guineapigs and the effects measured.

In another experiment, the researchers induced hypothermia in guineapigs while carrying out the Unilateral Labyrinthectomy. They found that the animals exposed to hypothermia during the operation took a significantly longer time to recover from the surgery, which is hardly a groundbreaking discovery.

Despite these published reports, Otago University has refused to release information held by the Otago University Animal Ethics Committee describing why these experiments were approved.

Some of the other prolific animal experimenters at Otago include Chris Bolter, who studies the nervous system in guinea pigs, and Associate Professor David Bilkey who has published numerous studies involving brain damage in rats. For example, one experiment involved inflicting brain lesions on rats and implanting electrodes into the brain and recording brainwaves in order to find out what effect the injuries had on the rats memory.

National Anti Vivisection Campaign
PO Box 6387, Wellington