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SELWYN TIMES Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Wednesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>18</strong> <strong>2020</strong> 3<br />
News<br />
Lincoln University cows used<br />
for ‘cruel and barbaric’ research<br />
• By Sophie Cornish<br />
HOLES HAVE been cut into<br />
the sides of cows as part of<br />
an experiment at a Lincoln<br />
University research facility.<br />
An animal rights group has<br />
called the procedure, “cruel,<br />
insensitive and barbaric.”<br />
The procedure is called fistulating<br />
which involves cutting a 15cm<br />
hole into the side of a cow to gain<br />
direct access to their stomachs.<br />
A permanent plastic ring is<br />
fitted into the hole with a lid on<br />
it, so researchers can put their<br />
arms straight<br />
inside a cow’s<br />
stomach, to<br />
allow contents<br />
to be removed<br />
or chemicals directly<br />
inserted.<br />
Tara Jackson<br />
A Lincoln<br />
University<br />
spokesperson<br />
said fistulated cows were used for<br />
research into rumen digestibility.<br />
“Any research carried out by<br />
Lincoln University involving<br />
animals must be approved by<br />
the Lincoln University Animal<br />
Ethics Committee and meet the<br />
standards of the University’s<br />
Code of Ethical Conduct for the<br />
Use of Animals and the Animal<br />
PERMANENT: A fistulated cow pictured at a Lincoln University<br />
facility in 2008.<br />
PHOTO: JASMINE GILLESPIE-GRAY<br />
Welfare Act 1999,” the spokesperson<br />
said.<br />
“The LUAEC ensures that all<br />
research, testing and teaching by<br />
Lincoln University involving animals<br />
is conducted according to the<br />
CEC and Animal Welfare Act.”<br />
Animal rights group New<br />
Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society<br />
has strongly condemned the<br />
procedure, saying cows can still<br />
suffer from the intrusive surgery<br />
up to 11 days after the surgery.<br />
Executive director Tara Jackson<br />
said the experiments, the<br />
most “gruesome she’d ever seen”<br />
are being done to enhance the<br />
animal agriculture industry.<br />
“Can you imagine poking<br />
your arm inside living being’s<br />
stomach? Yet again, animals are<br />
treated as test subjects,” she said.<br />
“I think for a lot of Kiwis, it<br />
would be quite a shock to see the<br />
link between animal testing and<br />
animal agriculture sector. You<br />
definitely don’t pick up a carton<br />
of milk and think ‘oh was animal<br />
testing conducted for this product’<br />
so it is a whole other side of<br />
it that is quite hidden.<br />
“This procedure is the epitome<br />
of using cows as mere objects,<br />
like cars with gas tanks. Cows<br />
are intelligent and sensitive animals<br />
who do not deserve to be<br />
tortured for any reason.”<br />
The procedure is generally<br />
done to examine the contents of<br />
the cow’s stomach in the name<br />
of research to improve the cow’s<br />
milk production or decrease its<br />
methane production.<br />
NZAVS have uncovered a<br />
range of different research papers<br />
online which show the procedure<br />
has been used at Lincoln University<br />
as early as 1994.<br />
The Lincoln University spokesperson<br />
said there was no current<br />
research in progress.<br />
The cows involved in the<br />
research would will remain<br />
fistulated for the duration of<br />
their life.<br />
“The cows are retained for<br />
future research and remain<br />
under the supervision of the<br />
LUAEC and day-to-day care of<br />
professionally trained staff,” the<br />
spokesperson said.<br />
In Brief<br />
EVENTS CANCELLED<br />
Two events in the district<br />
have been postponed due to<br />
Covid-19. The Hororata Primary<br />
School’s 150th jubilee planned<br />
for this weekend has been put on<br />
hold. Committee chairman Rod<br />
Oliver said they hope to still hold<br />
the event within the year. The<br />
Lincoln Envirotown Trust’s Kim<br />
Hill Hop Topic event on <strong>March</strong><br />
26 has also been postponed. A<br />
new date will be announced in<br />
the future.<br />
MYSTERIOUS CAR FIRE<br />
Firefighters in Darfield were<br />
called after a blaze in a burntout<br />
vehicle mysteriously reignited<br />
on McLaughlins Rd on<br />
Sunday. Members of the Darfield<br />
Volunteer Fire Brigade were<br />
called to the fire at 2.33pm.<br />
A Fire and Emergency NZ<br />
spokeswoman said the car had<br />
initially caught fire on Saturday<br />
night but then somehow it had<br />
re-ignited. She said the car had<br />
no registration number and was<br />
likely dumped in the area. While<br />
the fire may have re-ignited by<br />
itself, the spokeswoman said<br />
the cause is not yet known.<br />
Meanwhile, a fire engulfed an<br />
old hay shed in Sheffield in the<br />
early hours of Sunday morning.<br />
Fire crews from the Sheffield and<br />
Springfield stations were called<br />
to fight the blaze on West Coast<br />
Rd, Sheffield, about 12.56am.
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