"Switzerland
The International League of Doctors Against Vivisection

At last count had 467 subscribing doctors.

This group has a Petition of 100,00 signatures to abolish vivisection on grounds of scientific error going to the vote of the people through referendum for the second time. (Last time they got over a third of the vote.)

Doctor Pietro Croce the President of the League says:

'We must strive for the total and unconditional abolition of any experimentation on animals as a method of research in human medicine. This, not so much for the sake of animals but for the sake of humans.'

Doctor Vernon Coleman, well-known British doctor who belongs to this group says:

'Animal experiments don't just kill animals - they kill people too.'

Italy
The Foundation of Doctors and Scientists to Abolish Animal Experiments

On 8 November 1989 this Foundation held an historic International Scientific and Medical Congress in a Committee room in the Italian Parliament to which most of Italy's politicians and Europe's leading medical professionals attended. The Congress denounced vivisection on medical grounds. There is a Bill now grinding its way through the Italian legislative procedure to ban all vivisection in Italy. Professor Dr Bruno Fedi, Director of the Institution of Pathological Anatomy at the General Hospital in Terni, Italy said at this meeting:

'The abolition of vivisection would not halt medical progress, just the opposite. All the sound medical knowledge of today stems from observations carried out on human beings. No surgeon can gain the least knowledge from experiments on animals, and all the great surgeons of the past and present are in agreement with that. One cannot learn surgery through experiments on animals. Animals are different from man... from the anatomical standpoint their reactions are different, their structure is different, their resistance is different. Animals can only mislead the surgeon. If one performs experiments on animals one loses the sensitivity, the delicate touch necessary for operating on humans.'

Israel
The Society of Physicians for Responsible Medicine

On May 15 and 16 1990 this League held an International Congress in Tel Aviv with participants from USA, Italy, West Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, France and Great Britain.

At this meeting participants confirmed the overall policy of the combined leagues, that of scientific anti-vivisectionism. It is based on the fact that no animal species can be accepted as an experimental model for any other animals species... (often, even for its own species).

Doctor Andre Menache, Veterinarian, President of this League said in his address:

'Taking results from animal experiments for use in human beings is one of the greatest tragedies, and one of the greatest mistakes in medical history.'   'Animal experimentation continues to provide misleading and inconclusive results for man, of which we are occasionally reminded by drug disasters. Put bluntly, animal experimentation is not science.'

 ..."

At this point sundry newspaper reports showing drug tragedies in NZ were produced.

"... France
The French Anti-Vivisection League of Doctors

The President of this League is well-known abolitionist Dr Bruno Laure. In Paris on 10 July 1990 the League held an International Congress which was attended by hundreds of Doctors from many countries.

Mr Chairman, Congresses of Doctors against Vivisection are now taking place at a very fast rate, and medical technicians are beginning to support them.

Prof. Andrew Passebacq, Head of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris said at this meeting:

'Experiments on animals lead inevitably to experiments on people. They are senseless, one and all. As if an animal test could ever predict the same results on a person. As if an experiment on one human being could enable us to foresee the reactions of another human being... whose biology and metabolism is different, whose blood pressure is different, whose lifestyle, age and nourishment and sensitivity and genes and everything else is different.'

The United States of America
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Founded in 1984. based in Washington.

Thousands of doctors in this American league campaign for abolition on scientific grounds. It publishes, and we receive on a regular basis, the histories of people damaged by vivisection-based medicine. When a University of Cincinnati Head trauma 'study' involving cats became known the objections included many from this group.

From Dr J. Novic:

'It is only from human studies, both pathological (using autopsy material) and carefully-controlled, prospective, randomised, double-blind clinical trials, that we will ultimately progress in our ability to treat victims of head trauma.'

From Dr M. Sukoff:

'The cat is a poor experimental model for head injury because of its total distinctness from the human.'

Germany
The German League of Doctors fro the Abolition of Vivisection. A very strong and active league.

United Kingdom
The Society of Doctors in Britain Against Animal Experiments.

On April 22nd 1990, at London's Ecology Centre, Covent Garden, Dr Peter Mansfield, held a press conference in which he announced the founding of Great Britain's Society of Doctors in Britain Against Animal Experiments. Dr Mansfield said he had been inspired by the Rome Congress in the Italian Parliament the previous year.

This event marked the official launch of the book:

'One Thousand Doctors (and many more) Against Vivisection' written by our Patron, Medical Historian and Leader of the World Abolitionist Movement... Mr Hans Ruesch.

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