Dr Rubina Mondal

I would appeal to all to oppose the Draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Control and Supervision of Experiment, Breeding and Trading of Laboratory Animals) Rules, 2026. The draft rules, circulated by the Centre, will allow capture and use of wild animals—including endangered or protected Show More species under vague "scientific justification”. The draft rules also permit experiments on community and free-ranging stray dogs and cats. The rules also accommodate extreme procedures, like electric shocks, prolonged isolation of animals like dogs and monkeys and induced tumors Animal lovers have opposed this. PETA India has demanded withdrawal of these draft rules. One thing is clear. Change in animal lab testing rules will encourage cruelty to animals. If ethics panel gets the powers for granting approval to such lab experiments, nobody can stop it. During lab tests, animals undergo insufferable pain, but they cannot express it like humans. Rabbits, rats, monkeys and dogs are kept in small cages in labs, they are given needle pricks regularly. Since they are animals, no consent can be taken. The ideal condition is: use of animals in lab trials must be kept to the bare minimum and care must be taken that the animals do not suffer pain. As far as possible, non-animal testing should replace animal testing, but the new draft rules will put the clock back. In many countries animal testing is difficult and costly, and India may be used as the place at cheap costs. This is dangerous. We should register our objections over these new draft rules. Since November 5 is the deadline, I would appeal to all to scan the relevant QR code to register your objections.