The Ministry for Primary Industries has just released a report on the use of animals in science in 2019. This report gives a basic overview of how many animals were used in science in New Zealand during that year.

This newly published report shows that:

• 315,574 animals were used for research, testing and teaching purposes in 2019. An increase of 14,239 from the previous year.
• The rolling 3-year average has also risen to 310,497 animals, up 20,504 from the previous year.
• The most commonly used species in 2019 were cattle (81,595), sheep (72,550), mice (63,171) and fish (54,108).
• A saddening 34% of all animals used for research, testing and teaching purposes in 2019 were killed.

The report also reveals something new, for the first time, the numbers of animals who were bred for research, testing or teaching purposes but were neither manipulated nor used and were subsequently killed, were recorded. This was the outcome for an astonishing 159,149 animals in 2019.

The University of Otago alone bred over 65,000 animals who didn’t end up being used, so were killed.

We’re disappointed in the 2019 figures; they show that there have been no significant changes and that no real progress has been made, and as a result, animals are continuing to suffer in labs in New Zealand.

New technologies are coming out all the time, the government needs to start pushing the industry to transition to better technologies rather than using outdated animal models and unethical research methods. That’s why we’ve launched our Striking at the Source campaign calling for an overhaul of the entire system.

The campaign calls on the government to reallocate funding to non-animal-based technologies, improve regulatory oversight of the industry, and increase transparency to allow the public and journalists to access information about what really goes on in laboratories.