Get Our E-News

Higher Ed Animal Use for Trainings Banned

Written by PETA

Posted 04-20-2012, 10:42 AM | 12 Comments

Animals in university, medical and pharmacy school laboratories and classrooms – and those of us who care about them – have reason for celebration. Following an extensive campaign by PETA India, forward-thinking scientists and other caring people, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has issued guidelines to the Medical Council of India (MCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and University Grants Commission (UGC) to completely stop dissection and experimentation on animals for training both undergraduate and post-graduate students and to use non-animal methods of teaching instead!

This victory was hard fought. In addition to writing letters to all the entities mentioned above, our efforts included gathering petition signatures from university students, progressive scientists and other caring individuals; celebrity involvement; media coverage and online action by you! 

Also key to this victory was our engagement with the scientific community. In September, the Indian National Science Academy organised a brainstorming session in which scientists from all corners of India were invited to discuss the use of animals in education and research. PETA India was the only organisation that was given a chance to be a part of the discussion panel. We shared the information on available alternatives, gave examples of how medical schools in the US and the UK phased out the use of animals in their curricula and submitted a dossier of non-animal alternatives to the president of the MCI. As a first step in the victory, the UGC website published guidelines for phasing out dissection of animals in life-sciences courses.

In January, PETA India sponsored a series of free workshops on alternatives to the use of animals in bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBBS) programmes, which allowed us to reach nearly 500 medical teachers from 120 medical schools across India, many of whom decided to change to non-animal methods of instruction. Then, in February, we submitted a dossier of alternatives to use of animals in pharmacy education to the president of the PCI, who immediately informed us that they would begin the process of removing animals from pharmacy education and invited us to a brainstorming session with officials from the UGC and the PCI.

Finally, MoEF agreed with PETA that animal experiments should be avoided when alternatives are available, according to section 17(d) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. These new guidelines constitute a ban to which all the schools should strictly adhere.

This is an important win, but many animals continue to suffer and die in commercial laboratories. You can help them by urging the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to implement a complete ban on testing cosmetics on animals.






  • Kishore Pethad

    Thanks for your sincere effort in prevention of use of live animals in laboratories of colleges and achievement of success in the same. but still a lot of animals are used in the labs of pharmaceutical companies who conduct a lot of research work and in testing of the effect of new molecules on various animals for simulation of effects on them. I think that this also should be looked into thoroughly. Once again thanks.

  • Farhin

    Yeeeeeee m happy now !!!!!! :)

  • Chander Kumar Soni

    i am very happy from this banning.

  • Chander Kumar Soni

    thanks for banning.

  • Erika-G

    @Asis Goswami Can you please write to Dr. Chaitanya Koduri at about your queries. He might help you out. Thanks!

  • Asis Goswami

    It was a news that Govt has made a ban on animal experiments. But where is the Govt. order? How this ban will be implemented in universities and colleges? What action will be taken to those colleges or universities that did not follow the ban? Lot many questions!!! Unless we get the answer to these the so called ban will remain on paper only.

  • Julie Van Niekerk

    I am writing this letter not because I am a scientist or an intellect or a graduate. This is from a humble human being from the bottom of my heart. Mother earth and her inhabitants, humans and animals share this beauty of nature together and the ultimate aim is to live with her in peace and harmony where cruelty is not suppose to be part of it. People have altered it all. What a shame that we as humans can face the cruel treatment of animals, whether it is in the laboratory, companies, factories, Circus, Zoos, Puppy mills, Fur industry or individual torturing of animals, wild and domesticated. That includes euthanasia in a cruel way – gassing and heart stick. Animals in the laboratories are being tortured and killed in the name of science for the welfare of the human being. Who are we to decide that it is all in order to do cruel tests on these animals, when they scream and try to escape from the danger they find themselves in. They use body language to communicate with the scientist and the abusive person, yet we fail to recognize the cruelty behind this. It is not natural for any animal to be put through trauma deliberately. This earth is their planet too. Looking at nature and unhampered wilderness, I tend to think that this earth is their territory in the first place. We as humans have invaded their space to make way for technology and industries. Technology has put us in a dwindling spiral and thus the reason all the conflict between nations, let alone the animals that have to suffer due to our unethical behavior. Ironically, we are so dependent on animals for our survival. Humans fear old age, illness and death and justify the cruel experiments on animals. For how many years should man be the beast and behave like the beast and keep torturing animals that any scientist can see is endless suffering. How does a scientist go home and treat his family with passion and yet the other side of him is none caring towards other forms of life. How can he watch an animal being clamped from head to toe and observe the fear, kicking and “pleading for mercy”. How can he look at the pain and turn his head and have no remorse for his actions towards an animal that experience the same pain as any human.

  • Dr. BK Sharma

    The Indian National Science Academy should have invited at least those people/ experts who were a part of the UGC core expert committee which gave out the historic guidelines.

  • Helen Porter

    Please stop this useless torture of animals. Anmal bodies and human bodies are so different! Yeet the animals feel pain and they have emotions as any unbiased, observant person could tell you. Animals have given faithful service, love, comfort, service of every possible kind. Why must we torture those who give us so much freely.
    Must they be mutiliated! I say NO!!!

  • Sadhuvedantmuni Jain

    it is a great victory of our day we have all sorts of facilities like computers, CD.we can learn through these methods. we should realized about the innocents killings. we can save the innocent animals.

  • Bharat

    Sir,Am afraid that even after such a ban being imposed on use of animals in higher education our university still uses frogs,rabbits, rats and dissects them for lab experiments.

  • Yashshvi Mittal

    We want to organize a peta day in our university.


PETA India on Twitter