| "Today animals are by far the most oppressed section of our community. It is the great moral blind spot of our age." ---Richard D. Ryder (Author On Speciesism)
Aim
of Society:
To
discourage the use of animals in education and scientific procedures.
Mission
statement:
The
mission of Laboratory Animal Defenders is to strive for humane living
conditions for and treatment of animals used for all experimental
purposes and to work towards abolition of all animal experimentation
in Hong Kong. We will achieve this mission by:
Generating
publicity to enhance awareness of animal experimentation in Hong
Kong;
Educating
individuals and the public about animal experimentation and the
scientific alternatives;
Working
to pass legislation for the welfare of laboratory animals and eventual
elimination of animal experimentation in Hong Kong;
Investigating
specific animal experimentation activities;
Achieving
transparency in the use of animals in laboratories and other facilities.
Please note that LAD has not been active for several
years - it lacks a leader. YOU?
The First World Lab
Animal Day (WLAD) in China
5 Aug 2008
The Report of the first
WLAD by Chinese Animal Protection Network (CAPN)
For the first time,
World Lab Animal Day is commemorated by people in China this April and
May. Chinese Animal Protection Network, introduced this event into
China, we are delighted to present the detail of the event and wish to
share the experience with all people concerning the animal rights
movement in China.
Background
Although lab animals’
protection has been a very active chapter of the animal rights history
in the west, the whole Chinese advocacy community had very limited
awareness or action on the issue. Before this March, if searching "世界实验动物日"（Chinese
translation of WLAD）in
several most popular search engines, one can find almost nothing
relevant.[3]. as a group pioneered many area of animal protection in
the past several years [2], we are long aware the gap of lab animal
protection in the country. Thus we decided to introduce WLAD into
China this year.
Method
Our preparation for the
WLAD (24th April)
starts long before 24th of
April. First we surveyed the lab animal usage in China then put the
result into an open letter. In the letter we 1) demonstrate the
urgency, significance of the lab animal protection; 2) introduce the
history of WLAD and 3) call people around the country join us to
commemorate the first WLAD this April. Despite of the open letter, we
also prepared other educational material such as posters, banners and
articles. All those materials are published via one of our website
project 'Animal Rights in China' (http://www.arc.ngo.cn)
and our cooperative network.
Result
This open letter was a
big success; it is circulated over Internet by our supporters and has
brought lots of rational online discussion [1]. Its worth to mention,
many supporters are actually from research/educational institutions
which use lab animals.
Lab Animal Management
Committee of Jiangsu Province (a governmental department) republished
one of our WLAD article on their website and put the link of that
article on the homepage.
http://www.jsdw.org/dw/
Hefei Evening, a
regional newspaper with about 260,000 circulations, introduced WLAD in
one of its articles on 23 of April.
We also received many
echoes offline - supporters around country organized inspiring local
events since 24th April
to May.
Below are some of the
offline events/actions
- 24th of April, the head of Medical
College of Nanjing Agriculture University organized an offline
petition on the campus to commemorate WLAD.
Report of this event on the universities website:
- 24th of April, an university student
organized an offline petition on his campus with the help of other
members of his organization. Photo on the right is from this event.
The student’s original report can be found: http://www.povchina.ngo.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=8191
- The Volunteer organization of Life
Science College of South China Agriculture University organized
series events to commemorate WLAD this May. The events are: 1) a
survey of students’ attitude towards lab animal, 2) organizing
students to visit local animal shelter 3) and a lecture on animal
protection to students.
- 22nd of April, Chengdu animal group
'Home of Love' displayed the poster and commemorate WLAD on their
event.
- Environmental group 'green camel
bell' organized educational activities of WLAD in their office and
local zoo
Many other supporters
around countries requested the educational poster from us and
displayed it locally. In total 1000 posters have been sent to
following destination for display
- Guangzhou, Yangzhou, Lanzhou,
Shanghai, Tianjing, Dongguan, Chengdu,
- Beijing University, University of
Science and Technology Beijing, Northeast Normal University (Changchun),
Nanjing Forestry University, Northwest Normal University (Gansu),
Zhangzhou Normal University, West China Normal University (JinZhong)
We thank Compassion for
Animals Foundation for the funding of printing of posters; we thank
everyone who has helped us to spread the message of WLAD in China. The
journey of lab animal protection has just begun! |
