Hastings Anti-Vivisection action

In New Zealand Judge says objections should be posted to the "Appropriate" people!

On 9 January 1990 in the Hastings Court a 19-year old, angry at the government's refusal to acknowledge Submissions supporting NZAVS Petition to Abolish Vivisection in New Zealand was charged with spraypainting in the Hastings City Mall. Presiding Judge P.J. Toomey is reported as saying he was:

"... all in favour of people sticking up for their principles provided they did it in a lawful manner".

He ordered the defendant to pay $450 in reparation for damage in the Hastings City Mall, saying that:

"...the sum could have gone a long way towards buying postage and stationery to post the defendant's objections to the appropriate people".

Ostensibly Judge Toomey's reaction to this act of vandalism would be accepted as logical and reasonable, however it is clear that he is not in possession of the facts which are responsible for the frustrations of an increasing number of people involved in the struggle to banish vivisection from our supposed civilised society.

Certainly this young man has spent more than $450 in lawful demonstration against what his counsel Don Kennedy rightly describes as an unacceptable assault on humanity. However not $450 but in the region of seven hundred thousand dollars have been spent by this Society in the past eleven years in taking anti-vivisection objections, through lawful channels, to the "appropriate" people, and this includes hundreds of thousands of informative leaflets which have been distributed the length and breadth of New Zealand to a mostly unresponsive and uncaring public, which though "appropriate", are, apart from a slight minority, totally immersed in their pursuit of happiness oblivious and unperturbed about the silent, unseen, un-noticed and unjust vandalism of vivisection.

In this article NZAVS invites Judge Toomey to inform the Society which "appropriate" people he suggests we abolitionists should contact. In our eleven years of existence we have written, with boring and predictable regularity to all parliamentarians, we have written to the state-owned press hundreds of letters which are mostly unpublished, we have marched in mass rallies of protest through the streets of the capital on 24 April on 11 consecutive years. We have petitioned Parliament twice. In 1984 our Petition to ban the Lethal Dose 50 Test (56,000 signatures) was referred back to the Government from the Parliamentary Select Committee with the highest "Recommendation For Favourable Consideration"... upon which the Government instead of banning the test formed "ethics committees" to administer it! Our second Petition presented to the Government on 24 April 1989 with a massive 100,640 signatures resulted in point-blank refusal of the Primary Production Committee to accept any supporting submission other than the Submission of the principal petitioner. Seven hundred Submissions of support, several from people damaged by animal-tested drugs, and many from overseas scientists and doctors have been refused acknowledgement by the Government (which conversely registers the Submissions opposing the Petition from the many Government Departments and other bodies which have pro-vivisection inter-connections).

Approximately 40 people wishing to attend a Hearing of the Petition in order to present evidence supporting the Petition are denied the right to do so. This Petition has established the fact that all select committees are empowered to deal with Petitions precisely as they see fit. Our Society has consulted the Prime Minister and the Chief Ombudsman, who could be considered "appropriate" people, but who say they are:

"unable to interfere with the workings of a Parliamentary Select Committee"

Conviction follows painting incident

A man who sprayed anti-vivisectionist slogans on concrete sheep and walls in the Hastings City Mall was ordered to pay $450 reparation in Hastings District Court yesterday.

Laurence Percy Bacchus, a 19-year-old Hastings gardener, admitted the January 5 charge. Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Max Jones said Bacchus went to the mall area, spraying cans of bright spray paint. He sprayed the concrete sheep and surrounding concrete walls with anti-vivisectionist slogans, causing $450 worth of damage.

Mr Jones said the defendant told police he did not like the fact the Government had not abolished vivisection. Defence counsel Don Kennedy said Bacchus regarded vivisection as an unacceptable assault on humanity, and thought an unacceptable protest was warranted. Judge PJ Toomey said he was all in favour of people sticking up for their principles, provided they did so in a lawful manner.

Judge Toomey said:

"...the sum could have gone a long way towards buying postage and stationery to post the defendant's objections to the appropriate people".

Judge Toomey said he would not fine Bacchus, and convicted and ordered him to pay the $450 in reparation.

(Daily Telegraph 10/1/90)

NZAVS has distributed computer software of simulated experiments to every laboratory in New Zealand which uses animals in the training of medical students. Though these systems have been instrumental in closing certain vivisection laboratories in the USA the will to implement them in New Zealand by those who could be called the most "appropriate" was not merely non-existent, but hostile. Our Society has purchased and delivered thousands of books and informative literature to libraries and schools. It has taken its case, by way of the smash-hit film Hidden Crimes to the "appropriate" politicians in Parliament, however a mere three bothered to attend.

Currently in Switzerland, a petition similar to that which NZAVS now has before Parliament, is being prepared and will go directly to the vote of the people in public referendum on completion of 100,000 signatures. A similar initiative is being guided through the Italian legislative system, by scientists, parliamentarians and doctors. Medical men are behind a Petition gathering signatures coast to coast across Canada. The State of California is also in the running to be the first community globally to abolish vivisection. A world-wide Petition currently circulating originates in Denmark.

Abolitionists in New Zealand have exhausted every conceivable lawful avenue of approach not once, but time and time again. On the off-chance they could be classed as "appropriate" we have written to the vivisectors, the Governor-General, and the Queen.

In this open letter to Judge Toomey we ask if he would outline the lawful methods he advocates and thus enable us to conduct our campaign for abolishing this worst crime in modern history. We also ask if he would name the "appropriate" people to whom he recommends the young Hastings offender.

Brendon McNally, Animal Liberation Front activist jailed for 16 months in 1987:

"We live in a society where using legal means just doesn't work. Nobody listens. The law is made by people in power, and they are the people who are doing the exploiting."