14 April 1998

Re: Proposal P168

Recommendation

That, due to their inaccuracies, animal studies be given no weight when assessing the toxicity or nutritional value of novel foods and novel food ingredients.

That under the present proposal novel foods, which are safe for humans, will be deemed unsuitable by the use of animal studies.

Background

The NZ Anti-Vivisection Society (Inc.) was founded by Bette Overell in 1978. We have adopted the CIVIS Principles (select this link for the NZAVS' policy on vivisection). We oppose vivisection on the grounds that due to the many differences between the species it is misleading and often dangerous to accept any species as an experimental model for any other species.

Which species?

"The proposition is made… Let us take the animal as the experimental model for the human being. But here at once comes the first objection: Which animal? The mouse? The dog? And why not the rhinoceros or the warthog?… There are over three hundred thousand animal species on our planet, not one of which is a model for man. It only needs the appropriate animal species to produce the desired result."
- Prof. Pietro Croce, M.D., past President of International League of Doctors Against Vivisection, Vivisection or Science - a Choice to Make.

The chart provided by Prof. Croce (attached to original submission) reveals that whatever results sought by the vivisectors can be achieved by selecting the appropriate animal species.

As the chart shows by the proposal's standard (3.2.1 where "provided in vivo animal studies demonstrated no adverse effects…"), many safe (for humans) and possibly beneficial novel foods may be deemed unsuitable due to having adverse effects in animals. This would be denying the producers of the novel foods revenue from the potential sale of the foods and could render ANZFA liable for compensation payments when it is demonstrated that the novel food is safe for humans.

It is dangerous to pretend that animal studies have any relevance to the human situation. Complacency regarding the safety of novel foods may occur due to results showing the situation to be safe in animal trials. Pressure then occurs not to find anything that contradicts the animal data.