Queen Street Mass Memorial March Against Animal Testing For Party Pills

On Tuesday 30th July at 12 noon thousands of New Zealand animal lovers across the country will meet and join forces to demonstrate their disgust at the recent decision by Government to allow the testing of party pills on animals.

The Auckland march starting at bottom of Queen Street will be a memorial funeral service and silent protest  in rememberance of the animals who have suffered and been tortured. We are sending a strong message to parliament the people say no.  There are marches happening in Auckland and throughout the country.

This is a grass roots march of everyday New Zealanders which started off a Facebook page and has now spread across the country. Many people marching have never marched before.  The march is not affiliated to any particular organisation or political party, but has the full support of all the animal welfare organisations, in particular HUHA and Paw Justice. One of the coordinators of the Auckland march Angela Beer, says people are angry because the law is both inhumane and ineffective and because the people have not been listened too. The government has ignored 70,000+ signatures on a petition and all public opinion polls and passed this in to law. 

The marches are happening all over the country on Tuesday 30 July as this is the first day parliament sits, since this became law and the people want the government to know exactly where the nation stands.
New Zealand is sending a clear message, no testing party pills on our animals. This march is about keeping animals  and our children safe. The tragedy is under this law both suffer. There are other advanced, safer and more effective ways of testing than on animals, they are just more expensive.   This is about people and pets vs politicians, pill pushers and profit.

New Zealanders want to tell the Government to do their homework and check their facts before they vote on legislation like this. We are marching to show them that animal lovers and parents are voters.    “We cannot understand why the Government voted this way. New Zealand is known for it’s clean green image however this ruling completely contradicts overseas guidelines that show the testing of recreactional drugs on animals to be unethical and unnecessary” says Angela Beer. The UK banned animal testing for party pills in 1997 because there are better alternatives.

This is not a question of voting for the safety of people versus the safety of animals. This is about marching to keep both safe. Party pill testing on animals is horrendous and totally unnesessary when there are far safer and more viable options available to give accurate data.  Under this law both our animals and children suffer.  The people feel parliament has not had the knowledge to make an informed decision, we implore them to look again. "Many members of parliament admitted to having no prior knowledge of the credible non-animal testing alternatives until concerned members of the public handed him the information just hours prior to the vote” says Ms Beer.

The Auckland March will be leave the bottom of Queen street at Noon at Tuesday 30th July.  HUHA are co-ordinating other marches around the country.  Stand up and be counted.  Join us as we seek justice for those who cannot speak for themselves.  We also need to protect our international reputation.  This law is an embarrassment and a joke.

If you would like to find out more about the Auckland march please check out our Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/STOPPartyPillTestingOnAnimalsNZ and follow us on Twitter @spptnz

For marches outside of Auckland please check out www.huha.org.nz

For all  media enquiries  concerning the Auckland march please call Angela Beer – 021 539 699