We sent a special ‘cat mail’ delivery to Minister Robertson to send a clear signal that you and other influential NZAVS supporters care about cats and the other 300,000 animals used for science in Aotearoa.
Why Minister Robertson?
Hon Grant Robertson is the Minister of Finance and is in charge of the Budget.
This means he has the ultimate power to allocate funding from the Budget to help the science community invest in using advanced technologies instead of using archaic models trying to translate testing results from animals to humans.
Animal-free and human-relevant research methods can be used instead to create accurate and far more relevant results. But the right funding is needed for the science community to help them embrace these better methods.
Minister Robertson is very supportive of NZ music. We sent him a cat-related vinyl record by a ‘Flying Nun’ artist to play whilst he read our letter.
Our letter:
- Highlighted how many Kiwis care about cats and the other thousands of animals used for research, testing and teaching (RTT) in Aotearoa
- Explained how we do not have to choose between inflicting pain and suffering on animals and finding medical treatments and cures for people. An end to animal experimentation would be a win for animals, people, and science.
- Asked him to allocate funds in the 2023 Budget for replacing animals used in science.
