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About NZAVS
Founded in 1978 by Bette Overell, the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society is an incorporated society that is working for the abolition of vivisection on the grounds that it is scientific fraud.
Over the past three decades we have held demonstrations, presented petitions to Parliament, submissions to government and regulatory authorities, and introduced the public to vivisection through advertisements and the showing of videos such as Hidden Crimes and Lethal Medicine.
The cruelty and exploitation of animals by the vivisection industry is self-evident, so our campaign is focused on the scientific invalidity of vivisection and the resulting danger to human health. If you would like to become a member of NZAVS please send NZ$15 [along with your name, address, phone number (optional), and e-mail address (optional)] to the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (Inc.), PO Box 9387, Addington, Christchurch 8243, New Zealand. Members receive our newsletter Mobilise!
Or pay on-line (securely) using credit card/paypal - click the "Subscribe" button:
Thanks to Bette Overell and the past efforts of NZAVS, we have a variety of stunning material that we use on stalls and in displays. We are acting as an information source for serious anti-vivisectionists throughout New Zealand and are focusing public attention on the issue that vivisection is an unscientific method, which results in harm to human health.
Our current projects include:
- public education emphasising the scientific case against vivisection and the dangers to human health from animal experiments;
- distributing the Hans Ruesch book, Slaughter of the Innocent; and
- the promotion of the book Animal Research Takes Lives - Humans and Animals Both Suffer, including the on-line version - the text of which is available free. This book is a rebuttal of the claims of the New Zealand vivisection industry regarding the supposed "benefit" of vivisection. By promoting the book we are at the same time imparting the message that vivisection must be abolished due to its harmful effects on human health. This message is essential in our campaign to abolish vivisection by focusing on eliminating the demand for vivisection.
Campaigning for abolition
In the present New Zealand situation, those who campaign focused on "stop the torture" (or are concerned with categorising the various levels of "animal suffering") will not succeed in abolishing vivisection, while the public mistakenly believe that results of animal experiments may save the life of themselves or their families. The vivisectors' false claims are easily shown to be flawed. Public acknowledgement of the unscientific nature and dangers of vivisection will lead to the abolition of vivisection, an outcome that will enhance the lives of both humans and animals.
Currently from a New Zealand perspective, it is unlikely that shutting down one breeder or laboratory will result in the abolition of vivisection. The same experiments will instead be carried out elsewhere (in New Zealand or overseas) and the results still applied to the human situation - with no change to the number of animals suffering or the consequences for human health.
The focus at the moment must be on reducing the demand for vivisection:
- Educate the public on the dangers to themselves and their families from vivisection;
- Remove the insistence for, or allowance of, the use of results from animal experiments to satisfy regulation or legislation;
- Convince funders of research not to fund animal experiments, as they will not produce results relevant to humans;
- Convince community and lobby groups that calling for or supplying results from animal experiments harms their cases.
Abolition of vivisection requires, primarily the success of the above measures, along with deleting Part 6 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 (the Part that exempts vivisectors from adhering to the same animal welfare standards as the rest of the population).
