In April 1994 the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) held a conference at the School of Medicine, Christchurch (NZ) on ‘Animal Welfare in the Twenty-First Century: Ethical, Educational and Scientific Challenges’. The proceedings volume, containing the printed texts of the papers given at this important meeting, has now been published. The subjects covered ranged from ‘Ethical challenges’ (one paper), through ‘Educational challenges’ (seven papers), Scientific challenges (five papers), Challenges posed by the three Rs’ (five papers) to Protecting the New Zealand Environment - vertebrate pest control’. For details of some of the paper titles see the notice on page 2.