In an article in Greenworld Spring 1995, titled "A Sick Society", written by a longstanding BUAV member who wishes to remain anonymous, under a sub-heading titled "Lesser Measures - Serving the Vivisectors" the British Green Party pledges "the total abolition of vivisection within five years of forming a government". Like the policy of the BUAV before its infiltration and fall, the British Green Party's policy is based on the conviction that there is no ethical, moral, scientific or medical justification for the practice of vivisection. "Abolition", it says, "would release medical research from the shackles of an atrocity which has destroyed countless lives and wasted billions in useless fraudulent experiments".

Mobilise! No. 40, November 1994 detailed a law recently passed in Italy which, in giving students and medical trainees the right to refuse unconditionally, to participate in vivisection, makes the Italian Government current world-leader in reform. The policy was presented to the Italian Parliament by anti-vivisection advocates elected to Parliament in the Green Party.

Dr Ryu Ohta, Founder of the Earth Green Federation of Japan and member of ILDAV stated:

"Any Green party or ecology movement that does not clearly assert the abolition of vivisection as its No. 1 theme is fake and bogus."

The New Zealand Green Party, now preparing its manifesto for the November 1996 election is seriously out of step with its overseas relations, and with alarm and dismay we read its policy on vivisection. Everyone concerned with toppling the god of vivisection in New Zealand should challenge this run-with-the-hare - hunt-with-the hounds attempt to curry favour with both pro and anti-vivisectionists. Indeed, the New Zealand Green Party's thinking on this issue is so derelict, and they are so out of touch with reality, we wonder if they have been marooned on another planet during the past 15 years that the truth has been seeping through to this country's public. Fortunately the policy (outlined below) is still at the proposal stage and can be challenged:

"The New Zealand Green Party, while recognising the need for minimal animal testing in medical research will actively encourage the use of alternative methods."

The creators of these dubious and revealing words should be jolted from their ignorance by reading Animal Research Takes Lives - Humans and Animals Both Suffer (http://www.health.org.nz/cover.html). The book is now recognised internationally as one of the leading sources of information on the vivisection issue. it is especially valuable to New Zealanders as it deals with the NZ circumstance. For example, the New Zealand law, the New Zealand politicians' refusal to debate the issue, drug and vaccination disasters in New Zealand, the connection between vivisection damage to the environment through battery farming in this country - and much more.

As stated on page 4 of this Mobilise! (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/mobilise/4.html) while the NZ Greens may imagine they can foist blatant pro-vivisection policy onto an unwary public, college pupils who have Animal Research Takes Lives - Humans and Animals Both Suffer (http://www.health.org.nz/cover.html) at their disposal, and who are now far more knowledgeable about the issue than any potential political party which has not done its homework, will argue that vivisection is a money-making hoax and fraud, that it is as dangerous to humans as it is to animals, that there are no "alternatives" to a wrong method but only a change in direction.

We conclude that the New Zealand Greens are either grossly ignorant or hand-in-glove with the vivisectors.

Prof. Pietro Croce, MD

May 1989: An elderly married couple receive, as a present from a relative, a bundle of larks. This makes a tasty meal but...

The most illustrious victim of hemlock poisoning is Socrates, his pupil Aristocles Athenian, better known as "Plato", describes his death in a prison, 2395 years ago:

"...having quietly drunk the poison, Socrates paces the cell in front of his dismayed disciples: Cryton, Appollodoron, Phaedron, Esquines. But soon his legs give way. He stretches out on the pallet, still consoling his disciples and sweetly reproaching them for having given themselves up to tears. Meanwhile, the paralyzing effect of the poison climbs to the abdomen, the thorax. The respiratory muscles come to a stop."

From this description, it is easy to perceive the similarity of the action of hemlock to that of curare, the drug which acts upon the neuromuscular synapses and causes death by respiratory paralysis. One could say that hemlock is the "curare" of our climate or, vice-versa, that curare is "hemlock" come to us from distant climates.

"Poison hemlock" or"Socrates hemlock" (Conium maculatum) and hemlock minor (Aethusa Cynapium) are widespread in Italy. They grow among other spontaneous plants, reaching a maximum height of six feet. The slender stalk, of a light green colour, speckled (in the "poison hemlock" variety) with tiny rusty spots, has deep green leaves and tiny white flowers gathered in small umbrelliform inflorescences.

The most deceiving aspect is that the leaves are very similar to those of parsley, though a little bit wider. The width depends on the stage of development, however.

Why did the married couple whom we mentioned above get poisoned? Did they pick up hemlock, mistaking it for parsley?

The truth is that the hemlock was picked up for them, or better, against them, by the larks, who, after having filled their bellies, went on gladdening the world with their aerial beauty and their singing - until a poacher (larks are protected by law) shot them. But certainly he had no way of knowing that he was at the same time killing two people who were likely dear to him.

More recently, ten people suffered hemlock poisoning after eating not only larks, but also thrushes and chaffinches. Fortunately, there were no human deaths this time because assistance came more promptly, thanks to the previous experience.

What can we learn from these episodes? Animal-lovers perhaps expect to hear something like: "Don't kill those marvellous creatures by whom, according to St Francis, we are not even worthy to be considered 'brothers'..". We agree.

Law enforcement officers will probably say: "It serves them right. Now they will obey the law." And, here too, we agree.

But we, the unemotional observers, what teaching do we draw from those stories to hand down to our fellow men?

There is this simple, but indisputable lesson to be learned: A poison ("cicutine"), which is deadly for humans, is a tasty food for larks, thrushes and chaffinches, and who knows how many other species, feathered or not.

Nevertheless, the so-called scientists go on, obtusely, using the animals as models of the human species, they go on trying to verify on animals the harmlessness of medical drugs, even though they realize that any substance, which has proved to be substantially harmless to other species, can turn out to be as poisonous as hemlock for people.

- Vicenza, Italy, 20 June 1991