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On 1 August 1982, NZAVS, on the grounds that the SAFE Petition, ignoring all the medical evidence of invalidity of vivisection, had merely entrenched the system, placed a formal objection to that Society. On 8 September the reply, signed by Jill Carhart, then managing SAFE, was as follows:

"SAFE believes in abolition but only a practical and realistic approach to the situation will ensure results. Total abolition cannot occur over-night. Instead it must be seen as a goal towards which we all must work. Steps toward this goal involve greater accountability to deal with animal experiments which must continue to be carried out until they are eventually replaced."

The astute reader will not need to be reminded that 93 years had elapsed since Frances Power Cobb and Dr Hoggan had founded their anti-vivisection society, which hardly could be described as "overnight". Or that similar accolades of vivisection are scattered like confetti in Prof. Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, for example on page 33:

"Of the vast number of experiments, only a few contribute to important medical research."

And on page 34:

"... it is not necessary to insist that all experiments stop immediately."

And so, during an era of massive support for anti-vivisection in New Zealand, where, prior to the financial depression now affecting all charitable organisations, and prior to the cause being thumped in Parliament through this ill-advised and phoney Petition, in the vital years when the public was embracing the anti-vivisectionism issue with a fervour not seen since the invention of sliced bread and the panty-hose, not only did certain leaders of the SAFE Petition betray the abolitionist cause, but it was entirely responsible for preventing for decades to come, the New Zealand politicians from considering subsequent Petitions. Significantly, once the Petition was presented and the damage done, its principal promoter, who had said how "hard we must all work", soon vanished from the scene, leaving the movement in ruins.

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