Rally for animals

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 8

Rally for animals

Nearly 100 anti-vivisec-tion protesters marched in silence through central Christchurch on Tuesday on a World Day for Laboratory Animals .rally. The march was marked by the beat of a drum and led by Miss Natalie Taylor dressed in funeral garb. Miss Taylor is the Christchurch co-ordinator of the New Zealand Anti-vivisec-tionist Society. Most protesters carried placards and most of the pet dogs accompanying the marchers sported coats carrying messages such as “My friends are being tor-

tured.” The march ended outside the Cathedral with a speech by Miss Taylor in which she said that the use of animals in research laboratories was barbaric, and outmoded. “In New Zealand no funds have been set aside for study into alternative methods of research,” she said. Miss Taylor said that the recently passed amendment to the Animals Protection Act, 1960, was a farce. The act would be used by researchers and vivisectors to protect themselves, she said. The act had been passed

in the early hours of the morning last December, when most members of Parliament had been slumbering, said Miss Taylor.

The select committee which had discussed the draft bill had received 70 submissions.

Miss Taylor said seven women had presented their submissions in person, and they had commented that only one of the members of Parliament present, Mr W. R. Austin (Nat., Awarua), had shown any knowledge or interest in what the discussion was about.