Thursday 5th May

Physics Professor’s Animal Testing Claims Rejected

Otago University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Richard Blaikie, has publicly claimed that “…research using animal models has played a vital part in nearly every medical breakthrough over the past few decades and has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide”.

Blaikie said this after the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS) marched against the construction of a new $50 million animal-testing facility at the University.

“All you have to do is look at the past thirty to forty years’ worth of research using animals, in various medical research fields, to see that animal based research is failing us,” said NZAVS Executive Director, Tara Jackson.

“It is unreliable, inaccurate, and outdated, and I’m disappointed that Professor Blaikie is making public claims on a topic that he has very little knowledge about,” added Miss Jackson.

NZAVS have offered to help facilitate the adoption of non-animal based methods for research, testing and teaching at Otago.

“Having approval from an animal ethics committee does not mean that other viable, non-animal methods do not exist. The University should be doing a lot more to move forward with the most modern, applicable and ethical research methods that currently exist in 2017,” Jackson stated.

The New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society are encouraging members of the public to sign their petition to ‘Stop the Otago Animal Lab’ on their website: http://www.nzavs.org.nz/stop-the-otago-animal-lab/

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