If you would like to know more on the latest developments on animal welfare and meet people that have a passion for working with animals, this is an opportunity for you. ANZCCART hosts conferences annually where you get to hear great presentations, participate in workshops, hear different view points on the ethics of use of animals, and build networks with those interested in the many aspects of animal care. For more information on the upcoming conference or if you would like to view Proceedings of previous conferences please see below

The 2024 ANZCCART Conference will be held in Christchurch from 10-12 September, with a theme around the use of animals in education, teaching and training.

Indicative programme

Registrations

Call for Papers and Posters

The call for papers and posters for the Australia and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) 2024 conference is now open. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday 30 April 2024. Email abstracts to anzccart@royalsociety.org.nz. For more information and the abstract submission guidelines, download the guidelines here:

Cam Reid Oration

The Cam Reid Oration is an initiative introduced by the ANZCCART New Zealand Board in 1995 in recognition of the late Dr Cam Reid's pioneering role in the evaluation and adoption of standards of ethical conduct for animal experimentation in New Zealand. It is awarded at the ANZCCART (NZ) Conference every three years.

Previous Cam Reid Orators:

1995: Mr Chris Puplick, former Senator, Australian Parliament

1997: Mr Andrew McCaw, Office of Ombudsmen, Wellington

1999: Dr Jean Fleming, University of Otago

2001: Mr Gary Reese, former Director of Save Animals from Exploitation, Auckland

2003: Professor Jane Harding, Liggins Institute in Auckland

2005: Professor Don Evans, University of Otago

2008: Dr Mark Fisher, Kotare Bioethics Ltd, Hastings

2011: Professor Laura Bennet, University of Auckland

2014: Dr Siouxsie Wiles, University of Auckland

2017: Dr Helena Hogberg, Johns Hopkins University

2021: Professor Craig Johnson, Massey University

Archive of ANZCCART Conference proceedings:

• 2022 ANZCCART Conference - Melbourne 26-28 July (PDF 3.4MB, 99 pages)

• 2021 ANZCCART Conference – Openness in Animal Research (PDF 7.2MB, 160 pages)

Exploring the benefits and risks of openness in regards to the use of animals in Australian and New Zealand research.

View the conference proceedings

View the conference presentations

The 2021 conference (delayed from 2020) looked at ‘openness’ in animal research and teaching. Public confidence in animal research hinges on the scientific community engaging in the evolving conversation about how and why animals are used. Being open about these matters is a worthwhile endeavour, and to be encouraged.

To gain a broader perspective on how openness looks in practise, the conference examined overseas examples, both success stories and failures, and learn from different cultural viewpoints.

• 2019 ANZCCART Conference – Breaking Down Laboratory Walls (PDF 4.1MB, 138 pages)

• 2018 ANZCCART Conference – Keeping it Relevant (PDF, 198 pages)

• 2017 ANZCCART Conference – Maintaining social license in a changing world (PDF) Part 1, Part 2

The theme of the conference was maintaining social licence in a changing world. The conference covered a wide range of topics from addressing social license in different contexts, to advances in replacement, reduction and refinement technologies, lessons from animal ethics committee front lines, and animal handling.

• 2016 ANZCCART Conference – Man or Mouse (PDF, 3.5 MB, 109 pages)

• 2015 ANZCCART Conference – Animal ethics – the gold standard

• 2014 ANZCCART Conference – Mixing it up – ethics, science, and adventure tourism (PDF 1.7MB, 106 pages)

The use of animals for research and teaching can be awkward. Necessary, justifiable, ethical, well managed, well regulated without doubt. But still it can be awkward. It raises awkward questions. The conference sought to provide good answers to those questions.

• 2013 ANZCCART Conference – Can we do better? (PDF, 3.96 MB, 162 pages)

• 2012 ANZCCART Conference – Thinking Outside the Cage: A different point of view (PDF, 2 MB, 128 pages)

• 2011 ANZCCART Conference – Science with feeling: animals and people (ANZCCART website)

The eclectic mix of contributions in these proceedings recognise the complex interdependence between animals and people, an inextricable connection woven with feelings.

• 2010 ANNZART Conference – Ethics in a changing environment (PDF)

• 2009 ANZCCART Conference – AEC best practice (PDF, 3.2 MB, 126 pages)

• 2008 ANZCCART Conference – Blue Sky to deep water: the reality and the promise (ANZCCART website)

The contributions to the 2008 conference "Blue sky to deep water: the reality and the promise" held in Auckland, New Zealand, reflect the conference presentations dealing with science, values and the reality of understanding “backward running rats” and “cunning fighting fish”.

• 2007 ANZCCART Conference – Getting it Right (PDF, 1 MB, 120 pages)

• 2006 ANZCCART Conference – Responsibilities – The 4th R (PDF, 2.9 MB, 175 pages)

• 2005 ANZCCART Conference – Animal Ethics Committees and animal use in a monitored environment: is the ethics real, imagined or necessary? (PDF, 2.6 MB, 98 pages)

The conference focused on what Animal Ethics Committees do in regulating and monitoring the use of animals in research and teaching, and the public’s and scientists’ expectations of the process.

• 2004 ANZCCART Conference – Animal Ethics: New Frontiers, New Opportunities (PDF, 1 MB, 44 pages)

• 2003 ANZCCART Conference - Lifting the veil: finding common ground

The theme of this ANZCCART Conference is "Lifting the veil: finding common ground". This theme was borne out of a perceived need to respond in a positive way to concerns that have been expressed in New Zealand regarding secrecy in the regulatory processes governing animal research.

• 2003 ANZCCART Workshop - Monitoring Animal Welfare and Promoting Refinement (PDF)

• 2002 ANZCCART Conference – Animal welfare and Ethics Committees. Where are the goalposts now? (PDF, 2.2 MB, 94 pages)

• 2001 ANZCCART Conference – Learning, animals and the environment: Changing the face of the future (ANZCCART website)

Exploring the relationships between ourselves, animals, and the environment was the theme of the conference jointly organised by ANZCCART and the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC). Issues to be addressed included the interdependence and interconnectedness of all life, the images of science and scientists, relevant legislation, dealing with new technology, fish research, and what could and should statistics or the popular media tell us.

• 1999 AWAC/ANZCCART Conference - Innovation, ethics, and animal welfare: public confidence in science and agriculture

The conference placed the welfare of animals squarely in the context of the challenges posed by changing patterns ofinternational trade, scientific and technological innovation, and societal attitudes. A central issue was that of the relationship between the wider community-including producers and consumers of livestock products-and scientists.

• 1997 ANZCCART/NAEAC Conference - Ethical approaches to animal-based sceince

Ethical approaches to animal-based science emphasises value systems. Value systems are of importance to all of those concerned with animalbased science, whether as proponents or opponents of it.

• 1995 ANZCCART Conference - Farm animals in Biomedical and Agricultural Research

This was the sixth conference held by ANZCCART and the second in New Zealand. Its theme moved from the narrower area of traditional laboratory animals to encompass the much wider field of farm animals in biomedical and agricultural research.

• 1994 ANZCCART Conference - Animal welfare in the twenty-first century: ethical, educational and scientific challenges

The conference considered what directions animal welfare thinking might take in the future, the implications of those directions for human uses of animals in education and science, and the initiatives we would like to see taken to safeguard the welfare of the animals used in the educational and scientific arenas.