PETA protests against use of animals in laboratories

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) staged a demonstration to show how animals are abused and killed in laboratories on the eve of World Day for Animals in Jantar Mantar on Thursday.

During World Week for Animals in Laboratories, from April 18 to 26, PETA India’s members took part in a street-theatre-style graphic demonstration to show how animals are abused.
In a mock exercise, a woman was shackled to a table, force-fed chemicals, had her head shaved, and was ‘electrocuted’ before she was ‘thrown’ into a dumpster.

Other PETA members displayed posters emblazoned with photographs of real animals suffering the same abuses in laboratories.

“Shocking cruelty on animals occurs every day behind closed laboratory doors,” said PETA Science Policy Adviser Chaitanya Koduri.

“PETA’s motto reads, in part, that 'animals are not ours to experiment on’ – and our provocative street theatre performance will drive home the reasons why the government must put more focus on transitioning India’s researchers to using modern non-animal tests, as progressive scientists around the world are already doing.”

According to PETA, countless monkeys, dogs, rats and other animals are burned, blinded, cut open, poisoned, starved and drugged behind closed laboratory doors every year.

“These tests are not only cruel but also not directly applicable to humans because of the vast physiological variations between species. Modern research methods, such as in vitro tests, are less expensive, human-relevant and more reliable, and they don’t involve animals,” it said.