March 4 1994

To:
The Editor
The Evening Post
PO Box 3740
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

"Dear Editor

As one who has read with great interest, Bette Overell's Animal Research Takes Lives, I am compelled to take exception to Dame Anne Ballin's generalised condemnation of this extensively referenced book.  Unlike her critics, Ms Overell specifically refuted the assertions made in the Ministry of Agriculture and associates' Animal Research Saves Lives and backed them up with solid references from scientific journals and other news sources.  Her critics will have to do likewise if they expect intelligent people to pay them heed.

Doctors in other parts of the world who are going out of their way to oppose animal experimentation have nothing to gain and even much to lose, in doing so.  By bucking the medical and scientific establishment, which benefits greatly from research grants and plying therapies based on animal rather than human responses, they jeopardise their own eligibility for grant money, honorary appointments and even hospital affiliation.

It is noteworthy that these doctors and scientists in related fields assert their position against animal experimentation not out of concern for the animals, but rather because they consider such experiments useless and even misleading for treating human conditions.  Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Switzerland and the United States all have organisations of doctors claiming that animal experimentation is an unsatisfactory method for assisting ill or injured humans.

Bina Robinson
New York
USA"

(Bina Robinson is editor and publisher of The Civil Abolitionist which cites specific instances in which medical practice based on animal experiments has harmed humans and explains how medical advances are being made by working with human clinical data rather than data from other species.)

March 4 1994

To:
ANZCCART
c/o Royal Society of NZ
4 Halswell Street
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

"Would you be so kind as to send me a copy of some 'local and international reviews' mentioned in Ann Ballin's letter to City Voice, 17th February, that 'confirm the book (Animal Research Takes Lives) is based on anecdote and the personal views of the author, and (that) the information is not supported by the established medical literature'?

I should also be interested in seeing your organization's evaluation of this book if you have prepared one. I will make copies and send them to others.

Bina Robinson
Swain
New York
USA

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