AAHR NEWS 106 September 2005 Patron: Professor John Coetzee AIMS OF THE AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANE RESEARCH INC. • To promote all viable methods of healing which do not at any stage involve the use of animals. • To promote the use of scientific alternatives in all forms of medical, scientific and commercial research. • To help disseminate evidence, as it becomes available, that the use of alternatives is less costly, more accurate and more humane than the use of animals in experiments. • To work for the abolition of all experiments using animals. Hello and welcome to our new-look newsletter. I hope that you’ll find it reader-friendly, but that it still contains vital and credible information for which past newsletters have become renowned. Now that AAHR is established in Melbourne we are starting to get out and about. In July I spoke at Monash University’s Students of Sustainability conference, and will shortly address BOAR (Ballarat Organisation for Animal Rights). We urge all our Victorian members to come along We are also about to participate in the Cruelty Free Expo, and see the Cruelty Free Lifestyle Expo. and World Vegan Day picnic. It’s so great to have the opportunity to speak to people directly about the danger and All-Vegan Expo. Food, cosmetics, household the injustice of animal research. It also provides the products, toiletries, organic products, live music, opportunity to address people’s concerns and also to gauge workshops, cooking demos, literature, massage, their reactions and interest in the issue. devonshire tea, wine, beer and a delicious lunch. Plenty of street parking on Chapel Street or behind In this newsletter we launch our new campaign to stop the Coles off Cecil and Anchor Streets). There are great importation of primates for research, we introduce our terrific raffle prizes and plenty of activities for kids. Entry new merchandise, which I hope you’ll all be keen to is $10 for adults, including a value packed show purchase, we report on our recent AGM and provide news bag (while stocks last) and free entry for children. from Australia and from overseas. Thanks to everyone who has renewed their membership Sunday October 23 10am-5pm and for the wonderful feedback we have received about our Prahran Town Hall (Cr Greville/Chapel Sts brochures and website. It’s been so encouraging. We thank Melways: Map 2L H11) you for your support! Helen Rosser ‘Avant Card’ thank you During August and September, members may have noticed AAHR postcards appear on stands in their local cafes, restaurants, cinemas and galleries. A total of 90,000 cards RENEWALS have been distributed throughout Australia, spreading the message that “Animal experiments hurt people too! Some members are yet to renew their membership There IS a better way…” for 2006, so if you have a red stamp in this box then We’d like to express our sincere thanks to Avant Card for your membership is now overdue and we have in- their assistance in getting this important message across to cluded a renewal slip for you. Every membership is the public. essential to allow us to continue our important work to end animal experiments, so please.... RENEW NOW!! Ban the importation of primates for research the research industry’s demand for laboratory subjects. They are taken from countries such as Indonesia, the Australia is already home to three primate breeding facilities: Philippines, Mauritius, Barbados, Guyana, Tanzania, the National Marmoset Facility at Churchill, Victoria; the China, Israel and Vietnam and then transported by airlines National Macaque Facility in Werribee, Victoria (soon to to laboratories around the world. amalgamate with the Churchill facility); and the National Baboon Facility in Sydney, all of which breed animals The chain of supply starts with the capture of primates in specifically for the purpose of being used in research. primitive traps before they are taken to ‘holding’ compounds, where they are often held in cramped boxes or crates too Despite this “ready supply” however, during the past five small for them to stand up in.”4 years, five permits have been granted to import primates into Australia for research.1 This includes 127 pig-tailed macaques imported from Indonesia and provided to the CSIRO (Geelong campus) for research into AIDS.2 The NHMRC’s Policy on the care and use of non-human primates for scientific purposes states “Non-human primates imported from overseas must not be taken from wild populations and must be accompanied by documentation to certify their status.” 3 AAHR questions how strictly this is regulated. The UK is reputed to have one of the world’s highest standards in animal welfare, and in 1995 the UK Government announced a ban on the use of wild-caught primates in Photo courtesy: BUAV research unless there was “exceptional and specific justification”. Since the ban, however, various loopholes in the legislation have meant that some wild-caught primates have been used in the UK. The British Union Against Nevertheless, even if the animals imported are purpose-bred Vivisection (BUAV), and ‘Gateway to Hell’ have undertaken for research, they must endure long air journeys. investigations into the international trade. According to Gateway to Hell, “Undercover exposés show that the animals suffer horrifically whilst in transit. They are often deprived of the basic necessities of food, water and space. There is no care or sensitivity for the animals already terrified by their experiences. Many do not make it through alive.”5 Australian researchers should be looking toward non-animal methodologies that are far more relevant to studying human disease than replicating it in species that are genetically different to our own, yet instead of eliminating the use of primates, they are utilizing those already bred within our three established colonies, and still importing more! What can you do? Write to the following ministers and ask that the Australian Government impose an immediate ban on the importation of primates for research: Photo courtesy: BUAV The Hon. Tony Abbott, MP Minister for Health & Ageing As reported by BUAV, “The international trade in wild- House of Representatives caught and captive-bred primates for the research Parliament House industry is big business. Every year, thousands of Canberra ACT 2600 primates from around the world continue to be taken from Email: [email protected] the wild or bred in appalling captive conditions, to satisfy The Hon. Peter McGauran, MP Air France Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry Level 3, 55 Murray Street House of Representatives Pyrmont, NSW 2009 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 For more information about the international trade in Email: [email protected] primates, visit the Gateway to Hell website (www.gatewaytohell.net) and BUAV’s campaign on the The Hon. Mark Vaile, MP international trade in primates (www.buav.org/campaigns/ Minister for Trade primates/trade). House of Representatives Parliament House (Footnotes) 1 nd Canberra ACT 2600 Personal correspondence, AQIS, 2 August 2005 2 Primates for Primates newsletter, Volume 11, No.2, August 2005 Email: [email protected] 3 Policy on the Use of Non-Human Primates for Scientific Purposes, NHMRC, page 5, item 7. Air France has been identified by Gateway to Hell as 4www.buav.org/campaigns/primates/trade transporting animals for research. Please write and ask them 5www.gatewaytohell.net/gateways/gateways_index to stop transporting animals to their death. Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) The presence of animal ethics committees, and in particular inclusion of a category C member (animal welfare representative) is often used by researchers to promote a ‘clean’ image of the research industry to the public - as an assurance that the care and use of animals is sanctioned by those with a concern for their welfare and/or rights. However many category C persons serving on an ethics committee are opposed to the use of animals in research. Their presence is to ensure that the animals are protected as much as possible but only within the scope of the Code of Practice. Cherie Wilson kindly shares her experience with us. Are you in favour of, or opposed to, the use of animals in research? I am opposed to the use of animals in research. I do not procedures (although not in all cases). Scientists on the think experiments on other species conducted in artificial committee sometimes question the experimental methods laboratory environments are valuable to medical or numbers of animals used to ensure ‘valid’ results. Animal advancement. Instead we should be looking at human case technicians, if included on the committee, can give valuable studies and shifting the focus from curing symptoms of feedback on problems encountered during experiments*. disease to investigating the causes of disease within our Ethics Committees, however, do not tend to question the society. Many of the experiments that pass through my ethics ‘ethics’ underlying experiments, they simply refine committee deal with problems which we all know are caused experiments. In this way they can be seen to justify by inadequate diet and stress. experimentation. Would you say that AEC’s actually protect animals or Do you feel that as an animal welfare representative you instead that they are merely a measure to assist the have been able to alleviate any suffering? justification of their use? I have been able to help alleviate suffering of individual A properly operating AEC offers some form of protection for animals by insisting on the use of pain killers and the regular individual animals used in experiments. Animal welfare monitoring of animals involved in experiments. representatives and veterinarians on the committee are able to request pain relief for individual animals undergoing painful Have you ever challenged a protocol (procedure) or If I did this I would not be able to work within the even stopped it from going ahead? committee and would have to leave (so would not be able to help any of the animals trapped in the laboratories).