ANIMAL RESEARCH T A K E S LIVES
- Humans and Animals BOTH Suffer
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The U.S. National Institute of Health is a major funding body of the N.Z. Veterinary School, Palmerston North. It was therefore not surprising in 1986 when an animal vaccine, genetically engineered in the U.S. where federal agricultural, health and environment agencies withheld permission for its use, was tested in New Zealand though no official guidelines had been obtained. Scientists from the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine undertook the experiments on calves, sheep and chickens under the supervision of the N.Z. Ministry of Agriculture regardless of concern being voiced in both the U.S.A. and Britain. Newspaper reports, (Dominion, January and February 1986) claimed the Oregon scientists were attracted to New Zealand as an experimental laboratory for their products because they experienced fewer problems with red tape. In a recent issue of the New Internationalist magazine (as reported in the N.Z. Listener, June 17 1991), journalist Carol Grunewald reintroduced the issue intimating that:
"Lack of public awareness and Government regulation of biotechnology in New Zealand made this country an ideal open-air laboratory."