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On WDLA 1987 NZAVS launched a Petition to the NZ Government to Abolish Vivisection on grounds of scientific and medical invalidity. By WDLA 1989 it would be presented with 100,640 signatures. It would not be supported by SAFE. Conversely, for this entire period of intense NZAVS activity the Society would be subjected to a carefully orchestrated open onslaught of attacks in the media by Hall. For its marches, its Petitions, its youth in NZAVS ranks, for launching the breakthrough video Hidden Crimes - for all its activities and policies. The following are a few examples (in date order) taken at random from the many on NZAVS records:

Letter to Dominion, 13 December 1985. In criticism of NZAVS exposing the myth of "alternatives":

"When the public and the policy-makers have what they consider to be necessary proof of the present abuse of animals in New Zealand laboratories, "alternatives" will become a strong reality."
Adrienne Hall, SAFE (Auckland).

NOTE: About "alternatives": We refer to page 21, Vivisection or Science - A Choice to Make by Prof. Croce.

"Alternative methods!... Alternatives to what?
Are there alternatives to vivisection? Of course not. There are no alternatives to vivisection, because any method intended to replace it should have the same qualities; but it is hard to find anything in biomedical research that is, and always was, more deceptive and misleading than vivisection. So the methods we propose for medical research should be called "scientific methods", they are not "alternatives"."

It has been made crystal clear, with evidence handed to us by professional abolitionists like Ruesch, Croce, Bross, Fadali, Reines, Mendelsohn and scores of other giants working for abolition, that if the vivisection industry were forced (because of a government ban on the use of animals, like that sought in the NZAVS Petitions, or because of world-wide boycott of its products), to urgently implement other methods or go out of business, those methods would miraculously and quickly be "discovered", approved and put into use. In New Zealand the industry's greatest defence against this upheaval has been this "spokesperson" of an animal rights group, who made concerted, repeated and insistent public announcements that by taking slow and sensible steps, say for the next 100 years, "alternatives" may eventually become a reality, providing there is enough proof of animal cruelty - and enough money in the phoney alternative funds!

It would be logical to believe that prior to assuming the mind-boggling responsibility of speaking on behalf of a nationwide organisation, one would diligently acquaint oneself with the facts. NZAVS' conclusion for years was that either Hall was not aware of the facts, in which case she was a naive and extremely dangerous representative for the anti-vivisection movement, or that she was aware of the facts and deliberately contorted and withheld them.

In criticism of NZAVS Nationwide launch of the video Hidden Crimes. Hall, in a 'phone-in' over National Radio , on 3 October, World Animal Day 1986, immediately after your editor left the studio after launching the video to the New Zealand public:

"We should not offend the public with horrifying pictures. Overseas videos are useless. On the road to "eventual" abolition, small, credible steps must be taken. We (meaning NZAVS) are turning the public away from the cause and must be realistic."

NOTE: Hans Ruesch wrote of the video Hidden Crimes:

"Hidden Crimes is by far the most important - and the only honest anti-vivisectionist documentary ever made anywhere in the world because it is the only one that depicts the whole truth, holding back nothing."

Letter to Evening Post, 6 November 1986.

In criticism of Hidden Crimes first public Wellington screening:

"Making a lot of noise about vivisection overseas and behaving as if everyone will magically abandon the habits of a lifetime and reject animal exploitation are attention-getting but not at all constructive or realistic... Horrifying the public with nasty pictures and stories is not necessarily the way to sway the mainstream of opinion. Such emotional blackmail could be seen simply to cast despondency over potential allies, who then revert to the status quo with a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. However, if on the road to abolition of animal experimentation, sensible, credible steps can be taken to build up the case against vivisection then progress will be made, albeit unacceptably slowly for many of us."
- Adrienne Hall... Spokesperson SAFE.

NOTE: Hidden Crimes is not about "animal exploitation". It exposes vivisection as a corrupt and dangerously invalid but vastly lucrative premise upon which to base human health.

(Acknowledgement CIVIS Foundation Report Nr. 13)

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