PETA India seeks withdrawal of draft laboratory animal rules

PETA India has urged the government to withdraw the draft laboratory animal rules, warning that proposed provisions could threaten wildlife, community dogs and stray cats. The organisation has called for stronger safeguards and greater reliance on advanced, cruelty-free research methods.

Hyderabad: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India on Monday called for immediate withdrawal of the draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Control and Supervision of Experiment, Breeding and Trading of Laboratory Animals) Rules, 2026, warning that the proposed framework threatens to roll back decades of animal welfare progress.

The animal welfare organisation, in a strongly worded statement issued on Monday, cautioned that the draft provisions could open the door to capturing wild animals for research, including species protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and could also put community dogs and stray cats at risk of laboratory use.

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PETA said that the draft rules on laboratory animal experimentation accommodate experiments involving severe distress, such as inescapable electric shocks and prolonged isolation. The proposed rules would weaken independent oversight by allowing institutional committees to approve certain experiments on dogs, pigs, and cattle without prior central CCSEA review, while also introducing advance notice for facility inspections, it said.

PETA India’s Scientist and Research Policy Advisor, Dr Anjana Aggarwal, stressed that India must look forward rather than backward. “At a time when scientists can study human organs on chips and predict toxicity using sophisticated computer models, India’s forests must not become a source of laboratory animals,” she said.

PETA India has urged authorities to scrap the current draft and to formulate stronger safeguards that prioritise advanced, cruelty-free science.