Animal rights award

A University of Otago animal rights group has won an international award for its fight to stop a new animal testing lab and work to promote the legal rights of animals.

Otago Student Animal Legal Defence Fund president Oska Rego (22) said it was the only such fund outside the United States.

In the past year it had unsuccessfully campaigned to stop the university's plans to build a $50million animal research facility; won the right to have a student representative on the animal use and compliance steering group; and asked students through polling if they wanted a new animal testing facility.

Mr Rego will travel to Portland in the US next week to accept the award at the 25th annual Animal Law Conference.

Most recently the fund lobbied the Dunedin City Council after it was revealed it was discarding dead cats without notifying owners.

The fund shared the award with a university in Vermont.