Motion 68M(PO) 2004

Our aim this year was to remove the confusion caused (unwittingly) last year by the Executive Committee's motion 32M(PO). This is the motion I proposed:

"This Association recognises fundamental differences, both in purpose and in law, between the use of animals in the University's educational curriculum and the use of animals in its research. This Association therefore resolves to delete Motion 32M(PO) 2003 on the grounds that it confuses research with undergraduate experiments."

The motion was fiercely contested by two members of the EC who clearly had not done their homework! The first declared that because 32M(PO) 2003 had been overwhelmingly carried it should not be deleted, which was in fact untrue because last year two people came to me separately and said that I should have asked for a count because it looked very close to them. The second EC member spoke most vociferously that deleting 32 would leave students who opted-out unprotected, which is of course nonsense, because 33M(PO) 2003 quite clearly protects the academic record of students who opt out of doing experiments on animal and animal tissue.

Motion 68M(PO), to our great pleasure, was clearly carried and this was confirmed by a count.