Animals Used for Teaching in NZ

Animals Used for Teaching in NZ


Animals are used for teaching purposes in many different ways in NZ, including:

  • Dissection: Animals are dissected in classrooms as a way of teaching students about the anatomy and physiology of various animals. 
  • Observation: Students observe animals in their natural habitats or in controlled environments to learn about their behaviour and ecological interactions.
  • Research: Animals are used in research projects conducted by students and scientists to gain insights into specific biological phenomena.
  • Animal-assisted therapy: Animals, such as therapy dogs, are utilized to support emotional well-being and aid in therapeutic interventions for individuals with various needs.
  • Agricultural education: Animals used in animal agriculture are used to educate students about agricultural practices and animal husbandry (i.e., milking, impregnation of sows or dairy cows, calving assistance, hoof trimming, sheep shearing, tail and tooth clipping of piglets etc.).
  • Wildlife conservation: Animals are studied to understand conservation challenges and devise strategies to protect endangered species.
  • Animal behaviour studies: Students analyze and interpret animal behaviour patterns to learn about animal psychology and social dynamics.
  • Animal Care: Students use animals (often companion animals) to learn how to handle and care for animals correctly. Other students (i.e., vet students) use animals to practice surgery techniques, restrain animals, and take blood samples or other measurements. 

As you can tell from the above list, animals are used in both harmful and non-harmful teaching methods. Our goal at NZAVS is to end all teaching practices that are harmful to animals.

Animals used for teaching in NZ

 
  2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Alpacas/Llamas 10 11 23 19 0 40
Amphibia 24 9 74 14 53 3
Fowls/Chickens 274 330 1,131 350 408 986
Pigeons 0 95 0 0 21 75
Other birds 67 228 178 54 69 91
Cats 415 396 238 216 88 299
Cattle 15,119 15,046 19,939 20,473 14,536 23,927
Cephalopods/Crustaceans 3,954 1,786 2,092 1,818 1,941 2,142
Deer 66 0 301 193 0 593
Dogs 674 469 431 496 317 589
Fish 6,317 9,390 6,485 1,744 2,134 4,603
Goats 34 13 29 4 3,700 34
Guinea pigs 112 77 78 68 25 37
Horses/Donkeys 73 59 78 91 51 269
Mice 348 905 658 418 467 614
Pigs 51 53 1,342 466 0 386
Possums 5 0 1 18 0 1
Rabbits 149 162 131 48 37 97
Rats 337 397 1,274 518 507 2,113
Reptiles 228 18 29 16 101 9
Sheep 2,137 15,425 2,582 1,047 876 4,299
Other Species (Chinchillas) 2 2 2 5 0 2
The total number of animals used for teaching 30,396 44,871 37,096 28,076 25,331 41,325

 

You can find more examples of how each animal species is used in science here.

 

Animals Killed for Teaching in NZ

The NZ Government only tracks how many animals were killed who were used exclusively for teaching. If animals are killed for research and teaching purposes, then they are not counted in the overall total number of animals killed for teaching purposes in NZ. In short, we do not know exactly how many animals are killed who are used for teaching. 

The best we can do (from the info available) is provide an overview of how many animals were killed who were used exclusively for teaching purposes via the table below. 

  2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Total number of animals used for teaching  30,396 44,871 37,096 28,076 25,331 41,325
Animals used exclusively for teaching 10,813 21,405 9,376 6,306 12,651 9,791
Animals used exclusively for teaching who were killed 178 178 88 57 56 1,896

 

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