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Ministry for Primary Industries v Stemvet New Zealand Ltd [2020] NZDC 10125

Published 14 December 2021

Sentencing — selling prohibited product — carrying out project without approval from Animal Ethics Committee — veterinary medicine — Animal Welfare Act 1999. Having pleaded guilty, the defendant company appeared for sentence on charges of selling a product in breach of a condition that it not be sold, and carrying out a project without approval from an Animal Ethics Committee. The charges related to a veterinary medicine named SGF1000, which used stem cells as a treatment for arthritis in animals. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) had authorised the defendant to conduct experiments with SGF1000, on the condition that the defendant did not advertise or sell SGF1000. The defendant breached this condition 71 times over a three-year period by selling SGF1000 to numerous veterinary practices. The defendant maintained that it had done so to offset the importing and administrative costs of the experiments; however the Court was unconvinced by this argument and imposed a fine of $3750 to deter this type of offending. The second charge related to the defendant's continuing to supply and use SGF1000 after its ethics approval had expired. The defendant said that it was unaware that it needed to renew its ethics approval and had not received notification from MPI that it was to stop supplying SGF1000. The Court found that the defendant had not taken sufficient care to ensure that it was complying with the legislation, and imposed a fine of $750 on the second charge. Judgment date: 3 July 2020.