24 February 2003

1. The MAF Public Discussion Paper No. 30 discusses the recommendation of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee's on the prohibition of electroimmobilisation devices, with the exception of "no restriction" for devices obtained and used for "bona fide research" purposes.
2. NZAVS supports the prohibition of electroimmobilisation devices on the condition that devices to be used supposedly for research purposes also be prohibited.
3. No case is made in the Discussion Paper for vivisectors to be exempt from the prohibition.
4. The benefits to humans and animals from abolishing vivisection have been presented to government in NZAVS' Submission in Support of NZAVS Petition to Abolish Vivisection, 1991 (available Parliamentary Library, or from NZAVS on request).
5. There is no reason for vivisectors to be falsely legitimised by the Animal Welfare Act. The Minister of Agriculture must introduce legislation that: abolishes Part 6 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and requires that any vivisectors be subject to the same penalties as the rest of the public.

Phil Clayton
Director
New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society Incorporated