05-15-2018, 09:15 PM
Yes, that is indeed very sad: a missed opportunity. But New Zealand is not alone in not making rehoming compulsory for laboratory animals. The UK has a very poor record on this issue, so do lots of other countries.
Such animals deserve the chance of a life after use for experiments, rather than being killed (discarded as "expendable"). Rehoming is a better alternative. However, there is also a risk: labs could exploit their "humane face" in rehoming (ridiculous, I know, but they will....) as a means to continue using animals for tests indefinitely - even where valid non-animals alternatives exist (tissue culture, etc.). They have invested huge sums in cages, equipment and so forth for animals and don't want to modernise.
Rehoming should be welcomed as "better than nothing" - as long as the ultimate goal of abolition is kept on the agenda and the pressure to modernise is kept up.
Such animals deserve the chance of a life after use for experiments, rather than being killed (discarded as "expendable"). Rehoming is a better alternative. However, there is also a risk: labs could exploit their "humane face" in rehoming (ridiculous, I know, but they will....) as a means to continue using animals for tests indefinitely - even where valid non-animals alternatives exist (tissue culture, etc.). They have invested huge sums in cages, equipment and so forth for animals and don't want to modernise.
Rehoming should be welcomed as "better than nothing" - as long as the ultimate goal of abolition is kept on the agenda and the pressure to modernise is kept up.
