EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25554, 23 July 1948, Page 3

EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS

PRESIDENT OF S.P.C.A. SATISFIED NO CRUELTY AT MEDICAL SCHOOL (P.A.) DUNEDIN, July 22. Complaints made from time to time that cruelty was involved in experiments on animals at the Otago Medical School were denied to-day by Mr K. C. Aekins, of Auckland, president of the New Zealand Federation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, after a visit to the school. “I am satisfied that no cruelty to animals is being practised there,” Mr Aekins said. “My visit was unexpected, and nothing was stage-managed.” He added that he was satisfied from his inspection that no animal was operated on in the research department without a proper anaesthetic. Mr Aekins said he was convinced that no scientist would dream of performing any operation on an animal without an anaesthetic, any more than a surgeon would think of operating for appendicitis without one. The result in each case would be equally unsatisfactory.'

Experiments were being conducted at the Medical School with a view to the relief of certain kinds of heart and circulatory troubles. These involved the use mostly of rats, occasionally of rabbits, and at times of dogs or cats. The experiments were performed under proper anaesthetics, and in the case of dogs and cats, the animals were not allowed to recover, but were painlessly destroyed. The experiments had resulted in some significant additions to medical knowledge, which in some cases had undoubtedly led to the saving of lives.