‍Vivisection is the practice of cutting into or using invasive techniques on live animals. It is commonly called animal experimentation.

What is animal experimentation?

Animal experimentation is the use of animals for claimed scientific purposes where animals are forced to undergo procedures that are likely to cause them pain, injury or death, and that is not meant to benefit the individual animal involved.

Animal experimentation is often detrimental to the individual animals involved and can include:

• Forcing animals to inhale toxic substances
• Force-feeding or injecting animals with potentially lethal substances
• Subjecting animals to situations whereby they are deprived of their basic needs (food, water, shelter, sunlight, air, companionship)
• Putting animals in terrifying situations to create depression and anxiety
• Creating illness, disease or injury deliberately by subjecting healthy animals to invasive medical procedures such as removing organs or tissues.
• Killing animals to use their bodies in dissections.
• Purposefully breeding animals to create offspring that are more susceptible to disease, pain or distress during their life.

At NZAVS, we work tirelessly to end animal experimentation in Aotearoa, New Zealand by:

• Advocating - for the use and funding of scientifically viable and ethical, animal-free research, testing and teaching methods.
• Lobbying—for policy and legal changes, as well as changes to the systems that use animals for research, testing, and teaching methods.
• Collaborating - with as many decision-makers and key stakeholders as we can, at all levels, to influence and create positive long-term change for animals used in research, testing and teaching.
• Educating - to help change cultural, societal, and organisational behaviour and attitudes towards using animals in research, testing and teaching.

You will see that the team at NZAVS will sometimes use the term "animal testing" and at other times "animal experimentation". Though these terms both relate to vivisection, there is important differences between the two.

Animal Testing

This refers to the use of animals to test products, or hazardous substances.  Cosmetics, chemicals or medicines are often tested on animals as a flawed attempt to test their efficacy or safety.

Animal Experimentation

When we talk about animal experimentation we refer to the wider use of animals outside of product testing. Examples include

• Using animals in an attempt to mimic human diseases
• Develop new treatments
• Study how much an animal can grow on a particular diet.

Experimentation also includes research into basic biological functions like breathing, reflexes, pain or hormones, as well as the study of various aspects of animals like their cognition, reasoning abilities or place in the ecosystem (including the best ways to get rid of some).

There are unfortunatly many barriers preventing the progress of animal free methods.

1. Outdated laws and regulations: Laws still require animal testing, blocking non-animal methods from being used.‍
2. Lack of funding: No dedicated funding for non-animal methods means no incentive for progress.‍
3. Lack of transparency: Harmful research that would cause outrage happens behind closed doors, hidden from the public eye. ‍
4. Risk-averse decision making: Decision-makers are hesitant to step away from the status quo and embrace animal-free and human-relevant science.‍
5. Financial interests: The animal experimentation industry is a global multi-billion-dollar industry, meaning many stakeholders benefit from the existence of animal experimentation.‍
6. Public misconceptions: Many people still believe animal testing is necessary to save lives, but human-focused, animal-free methods are outperforming outdated animal models.
7. ‍The easeof animal-based research: It is easier to apply for and plan animal-based research than to organise trials with humans, and ethics approval for animal experiments is rather easy to get.‍
8. Publish-or-perish: Research relying on animals is prioritised and sometimes required by journals, reviewers and funders, pressuring researchers to use animal methods if they want to advance their careers.‍
9. Developing animal-free methods isn’t a priority: Lack of incentives, funding, and strategy leaves the use and development ofanimal free methods sidelined.

You can learn more about these barriers here.

The use of animals in cosmetic testing was banned in Aotearoa in 2025, but unfortunately there are many other ways animals are experimented on here.

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Organisations who use animals are required to provide information to MPI on the purpose of their manpiulations. These purposes fit into the following broad catergories;

• Basic biological research: Research that aims to understand the workings of living things.
• Veterinary research: Research aimed at improving the health and welfare of production andcompanion animals.
• Teaching: Animals used for teaching or instruction, at any level.
• Animal husbandry research: Animal husbandry, including reproduction, nutrition, growth and production.
• Medical research: Research aimed at improving the health and welfare of humans, but not research on human subjects.
• Testing: Animals used for public health testing or to ensure the safety, efficacy orquality of products, in order to meet the regulatory requirements for human or animal products, either in New Zealand or internationally.
• Environmental management research: Environmental management, including the control of animal pests and research into methods of reducing production of greenhouse gases.
• Species conservation: Work directed towards species conservation. The species to be conserved may or may not be directly involved (for example some studies may involve using a smaller animal than the endagered one as they are cheaper to use).
• Production of biological agents: Animals used for raising antibodies or for the supply of blood products.
• Development of alternatives: Work aimed at developing methods to replace or reduce the use of live animals in research, testing and teaching.
• Producing offspring with compromised welfare: Breeding animals, using a breeding technique that produces offspring that maybe/are likely to be more susceptible or at greater risk of pain or distress during their life.
• Other: Manipulations for purposes other than those listed above.

For more information on how differenent animals are used in NZ, see our case studies page here.

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The numbers fluctuate, but around 300,000 animals are used for research, testing and teaching every year in Aotearoa.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) gathers statistics on not only how many animals were used, but also;

• how many were killed after use
• how many were bred and killed without being used
• what kind of study they were used for
• where they were sourced from
• where they were used.

You can see a breakdown of each years numbers on our Statistics page here.

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