This document is reproduced for reference purposes only, it contains false and unsubstantiated claims designed to mislead the public. Farmed sheep, cattle and deer provide us with most of our export income. We treasure our pets and rare native birds. We enjoy television programmes about wildlife and movies featuring animals.
Laboratory animals play an equally important role.
Thanks to animal research, most New Zealanders enjoy long and healthy lives, and our pets and farm animals are protected from painful and fatal diseases. Most advances in human and animal health this century have resulted from animal research. Epidemics of diseases like polio, diphtheria, whooping cough and scarlet fever once killed hundreds of New Zealand 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 thousands from parasites and infectious diseases.