Introduction Animals play a big part in our way of life. We treasure our pets and native fauna. We enjoy television programmes about wildlife and movies featuring animals. Farmed animals provide us with milk, cheese, meat, leather and wool. The export of animal products is very important to the economy.
Laboratory animals play an equally important role.
Thanks to animal research, most Australians and New Zealanders enjoy long and healthy lives, and our pets and farm animals are protected from painful and fatal diseases. Many advances in human and animal health this century have resulted from animal research. Epidemics of diseases like polio, diphtheria and whooping cough once killed thousands of children every year. Vaccines developed using laboratory animals mean that these diseases are now all but a distant memory. Pets and farm animals used to die in their tens of thousands from parasites and infectious diseases.