Hyderabad, June 17 (IANS) Police in Telangana’s Mahabubnagar district have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against an animal experimentation facility of Palamur Biosciences Pvt Ltd for abuse and cruel killing of animals at its lab.

On a complaint by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, the FIR has been registered under Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) for apparent violation of Sections 34, 269, 289, 337 and 429 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for killing animals in the company’s custody and for maiming the animals.

Sections 9, 39, and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972, were invoked as rhesus macaques were protected under the erstwhile Schedule II Part I of the WPA before the Wildlife Protection Amendment Act, 2022, came into force. The apparent capturing of rhesus macaques from the wild in 2021-2022 by the company amounts to hunting, which includes capturing and is a punishable offence under the WPA, said the animal rights group.

The registration of FIR follows PETA India’s whistleblower-led expose. This is the first time an FIR has been registered against an animal experimentation laboratory in India, the group said.

Dr Anjana Aggarwal, Scientist and Research Policy Advisor at PETA India, on whose complaint the FIR was registered, said that PETA India’s expose of this major contract laboratory is the first of its kind in the country to rip open the veil of secrecy surrounding facilities where dogs, rhesus macaques, and other animals endure painful procedures, languish for years.

According to the whistleblowers who contacted PETA India, this laboratory which poisons beagles and other animals as a matter of course, has reportedly subjected animals to overcrowded cages or in other cases social isolation, environments that caused animals injuries and infections, and an often painful death when the animals are deemed no longer of use.

Following the expose, the central government body Committee for the Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA) constituted an emergency committee to inspect the facility. However, the inspection report is still awaited.

PETA India had last week urged CCSEA to permanently shut down the animal testing facility.

The group wrote that it had obtained video footage, photos, and insider testimonies from former employees documenting the alleged abuse at the Mahabubnagar-based facility between 2021 and 2023.

–IANS

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