(From previous page)

The international movement of doctors against vivisection is expanding, their aim being to inspire their colleagues to join them in voicing the truth that vivisection has no bearing on human health. This is an extremely difficult decision for doctors as it means they must swim against the strong tide of a medical establishment which consists of profiteers from the lucrative pseudo science of animal experiments. (This is perhaps why, despite NZAVS efforts we have been unable to raise one spark of interest from a single New Zealand doctor.)

DBAAE doctors and related scientists oppose vivisection solely on medical and scientific grounds... entirely apart from the feelings they may, or may not have, for animals. They oppose vivisection because it:

• hinders medical progress
• creates great harm to human beings
• wastes money that could be used in valid research into health

This Congress which took place in a packed hall was another nail in the coffin of vivisection. All the reports showed that the media interest and coverage it received is far different to the abysmal lack of interest (or conniving) of those who prepare the news for the public in New Zealand. For example:-

On 26 January 1993 your editor agreed to be interviewed by the TV3 news-team about our Society's reaction to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, which, having used up all the country's laboratory mice in poisoning experiments with polluted shellfish taken from waters the full length of both the North and South Islands of New Zealand, were ordering further supplies of mice from overseas.

From the onset of the interview it was emphasised that the focus of NZAVS concern was on the scientific invalidity - raising the following points:

• the 22 major differences between the man and the mouse;
• the irrelevance of the experiments: penicillin does not kill mice but kills guinea-pigs; strychnine kills people but not guinea-pigs; prussic acid kills people but not frogs or sheep who can lap it up without harm... etc;
• that the U.S. National Cancer Institute Advisory Board, after 35 years of injecting four hundred thousand chemicals into mice in search of a cancer cure has issued a statement saying they've "been using the wrong system and will in future test potential cancer-fighting drugs on real human cancer cells, grown in labs, and not on mice";
• the benefits of the human placenta which specialists say is the ideal experimental material for toxicological study, burn research, micro-surgery etc;
• outlined briefly the massive industry profiting from breeding mice and other animals for such nonsensical and money-wasting experiments, and details of the firm's profits.

When screened on nationwide news at 6pm, 26 January 1993 the entire evidence was edited and the issue introduced as an "animal rights" issue in which anti-vivisectionists were portrayed as being "deeply concerned about the cruel experiments in which mice died long and lingering deaths". This classic New Zealand news snippet proved yet again that for reasons of its own the media in this country is determined not to allow a hint of our true agenda to seep through to the public ie the invalidity of animal experiments.

Library Campaign

After using all members donations in 1991 to place..

• NZAVS Submission in Support of its Petition to Abolish Vivisection
• Hans Ruesch's Bullet-in Number Two

..in every main and suburban library and every college in New Zealand we believed the job was done. However it soon became apparent that the information donated was not making it onto the shelves or to the public. Hence in Mobilise! 33, July 1992 we appealed to members to investigate whether their local library had the Submission and Bullet-in and to report back to NZAVS.

As the replies trickled in, the extent of the censorship of NZAVS material was revealed. We received information on 21 libraries, three-quarters of which did not have the Submission or Bullet-in present or available. To avoid time-wasting and to get straight to the root of the problem, we wrote to the Mayor of the respective districts making the points that the information was donated for the use of the public and its availability should not be at the discretion of librarians, who are generally not experts in the anti-vivisection field.

Our belief that we would discover the cause of our missing information, was short-lived, as official looking letters arrived from Mayors' offices. The letters both from the Mayors and the chief librarians in cases where our letter had been forwarded on to them, mainly contained the same message:

"They had never received the information"

"Knew nothing about it"

"Could we send it again"

Further to investigating public libraries, Vivienne Sands undertook a survey of 26 Christchurch schools. Of which only seventeen of the colleges had both the books available. After writing to the principals of the schools asking what had happened, only one deigned to reply - and did not know whether or not they had received them!

So here lies the great mystery of the twentieth century. Either New Zealand Post is losing a substantial amount of mail, or censorship by librarians is rampant throughout New Zealand. Since NZAVS has never encountered problems with the postal service, we have no choice but to suspect the latter. Which has serious implications concerning the planned placement of the ARSL rebuttal in libraries...

(Anita Spencer)