(India)Animal rights activist is removed from government committee

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http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7380/68/a?etoc

 

BMJ 2003;326:68 ( 11 January )

 

News

Animal rights activist is removed from government

committee

Sanjay Kumar, New Delhi

 

India's high profile animal rights activist and former

minister for welfare Ms Maneka Gandhi has been removed

from her position as chairwoman of the government's

Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision

of Experiments on Animals.

 

The committee had earned the wrath of Indian

scientific researchers over recent years for its

approach to animals in scientific research and for its

" raids " on both government and private laboratories

(BMJ 2002;325:1192)[Free Full Text].

 

The committeewhich gives permission to registered

institutions to carry out animal experimentationhas

inspected 467 laboratories nationwide since December

1998. It has found that 400 did not have basic

facilities for housing and care of laboratory animals,

according to the latest committee report published in

the women's journal Manushi, which has devoted an

entire issue to the subject of animal welfare.

 

Ms Gandhi says that the conditions in Indian

laboratory animal houses and the practices used in

experiments with these animals are among the worst in

the world.

 

" While millions of animals have been killed in the

name of research in India, almost 90% of this research

has been useless and has been unnecessary duplication

of research already done abroad, " she told the BMJ.

 

Sandip Basu, the director of the National Institute of

Immunology in New Delhi, calls the raids

" non-governmental organisation-type actions of the

Maneka brigade. "

 

His institute was inspected by the committee twice,

but no report has been provided to them, despite his

demands, said Dr Basu.

 

He vehemently contradicts the committee's assertions

publicised in its newsletter under the title " Primates

pickled in cages for 18 years " (www.cpcsea.com).

 

" I can vouch only for my own institute and say that

the animals have been kept in conditions that are not

only internationally acceptable but have been recorded

by collaborative institutions like the US National

Institutes of Health, " he said.

 

" This is an anti-science mindset that we are up

against, and Maneka Gandhi is just a symbol of that, "

said Dr Basu.

 

Scientists have demanded a thorough restructuring of

the committee to include " technically knowledgeable

experts rather than the emotional ones. "

 

As for Ms Gandhi, she remains unfazed and

unapologetic: " It is quite obviously a conspiracy of

the scientific establishment to get me removed, " she

told the BMJ. " The scientific establishment would like

to turn the committee into a toothless body, but I

don't think they will succeed now. "

 

 

 

 

 

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