April 2001

CBSE Ban on Dissection

A circular issued by the Central Board for School Education (CBSE) Director (Academic), Mr. G. Balasubramaniam on April 12, 2000 said that the Board had decided to stop with immediate effect all dissection of animals in biology practicals in the senior school curriculum. As a result, there will be no more practical exams using animals in the biology examinations from March 2002. Instead, the students will perform other experiments that have already been identified and prescribed in the syllabus.

In February this year, Mr. M. K. Kaw, Secretary to the Government, Ministry of Human Resource Development, wrote to education secretaries of all the States reminding them that the Ministry had written to them in November 1997 that dissection had been made optional. The letter requests them to instruct all schools to dispense with the dissection of animals and to find alternative methods of teaching.

While the CBSE had made dissection optional in 1998 and most schools followed suit, a few continued to make dissection compulsory and refused to give the student the option required under law. In the mad scramble for grades and fearful of victimization, students in such schools continued to dissect. In Chennai, three such schools Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, P S. Senior Secondary and Bhaktavatsalam Senior Secondary School - continued with the practice, even though the vast majority of CBSE schools in Chennai stopped dissection completely, not just making it optional for the student.

One state where there were major student protests when the schools did not offer the legal option not to dissect was Assam. In one of the state's schools offering the option, only 23 of the 430 students opted for dissection according to a report in The New Indian Express.

While we should be happy at the present developments, it is distressing to know that the changes are coming about 35 years after the first requests made by the Blue Cross to the Ministry of Education, Government of India, and fifteen years after the School Boards of Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge removed dissection from their practicals. It may be mentioned here that one of the earliest declarations against dissection was made during the Seminar on Vivisection held by the Blue Cross of India on March 7, 1965, and attended by a representative of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, the National Anti-vivisection Society and Animal Aid. The resolutions were passed and sent to the Government of India for necessary action. These included a demand that no animals be used in teaching institutions, since many films and models were already available. (Please visit our website www.kmr.net/bluecross for further details of the March 7, 1965 seminar resolutions.)

In a cover story titled "Slaughter for Science" in the March 1978 issue of the Illustrated Weekly of India, Blue Cross Governing Body member Dr. Nanditha C. Krishna made out a strong case against dissection. Accompanied by several gory colour photographs taken by Mr. V K. Rajamani, the article made a major national impact. Within a few days of the article appearing, the Government of India under the Prime Ministership of Shri Morarji Desai, banned the export of monkeys for research purposes. (The article and the accompanying photographs can be read and seen by visiting our website www.kmr.net/bluecross.)

In 1987, the Blue Cross developed the first of the COMPU series, COMPU FROG, followed by COMPU RAT, COMPU COCKROACH, COMPU WORM, COMPU EARTHWORM, COMPU PIGEON and COMPU RABBIT. These were among the earliest computer-aided alternatives to dissection, whereby the student could, interactively, gain both

knowledge of the animal's anatomy and skill to dissect the animal without sacrificing any lives. For the first time, the education authorities were willing to accept that there was a viable alternative to using animals in dissection.

In 1996, Blue Cross Governing Body member Dr. Nanditha Krishna led a delegation, consisting of Dr. R. Nagarajan, who had helped us develop the COMPU series, and Mrs. Prema Veeraraghavan, a teacher of biology with 25 years experience, to New Delhi to make a presentation on alternates to dissection and the need to ban experimentation on live animals. The presentation was made to the Secretary of Education, Government of India, Chairman, National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT), Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Chairman Indian Council .for Secondary Education (ICSE), besides senior officials of the department of education. The reception was very positive and they agreed to make it optional. In 1997 the Delhi High Court delivered a judgement saying that the student should be given the option of dissecting or not. Meanwhile, Mrs. Prema Veeraraghavan went on to become the expert consultant on the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA).

Today, the alternates to animal models available for teaching purposes are virtually endless. with lifelike mannequins, videodiscs and computer simulations, which are preferred over animal models in medical institutions in the US. and many countries in Europe.

Only a few "pure science" streams in some state boards and the ICSE still require dissection. It is heartening to note that the Government of India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals are taking all steps to end this practice.

'U.S. Medical Institutions Do Not Use Animal Models'

Chennai, April 19. Students in American medical institutions no longer learn medicine using animals and are, therefore, better trained. Instead they use computer simulation and synthetic materials to learn the art of surgery, said Dr. Jerry W. Vlasak, diplomate, American Board of Surgery and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, here today.

Speaking at a workshop on 'Advances in medical education', he said that more than 100 institutions were functioning in the U.S., but almost all of them had closed the animal laboratories following a consensus reached two decades ago among the teaching faculty.

Many medical schools in the U.S., including Harvard, have turned to artificial human models for teaching a variety of medical techniques.

People with diseases volunteer to test drugs on themselves and so it was not necessary to test drugs on animals. Similarly, many schools in the country have given up vivisection. Though there was no national law banning vivisection, some of the States had banned it, he said.

All these educational institutions were using computer simulation, documented video tapes and other mannequin materials to do surgeries, he said. Installing software and hardware for computer simulation was not expensive, he said, and added that it could be also demonstrated to a large number of students.

Stressed animals provide only unreliable results. Newer methods were faster, cheaper and more accurate, he said. Experimenting on animals for human benefit was not science, he said, and on several occasions, extrapolation from animals had harmed human beings.

King Institute Hands Over 48 horses to CPCSEA for Rehabilitation

Nearly 80 horses died in the span of a few months at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine (KIPM) at Chennai. The horror stories appeared regularly in the media last year. Most of the animals, some of which were over 25 years old, died due to over-bleeding during the course of production of anti-snake venom serum.

While KIPM authorities claim that some of the animals died due to toxins in the feed given to them, the fact remains that the WHO protocol, which requires that animals used in such procedures be between four and eight years old, was not being followed. The required level of veterinary facilities was not available. As a matter of fact, in December 2000, the Blue Cross had a give an intravenous stand to KIPM since they did not have even one available! The Blue Cross had to also step in and give over Rs. 25,000 worth of emergency medicines during November and December since the medicines were not available with KIPM and the procedures to procure them were so time consuming that many more animals would have died.

Investigations over the last year have revealed that the three major institutions involved in ASVS production -KIPM at Chennai, Haffkine Institute in Pune and Biologicals Evans at Hyderabad flouted every one of the basic requirements required for ASVS production. Insufficient feed, lack of bedding, lack of medical facilities, over-drawal of blood under deplorably unhygienic conditions, use of sick and wounded animals, use of animals in the 18-25 year group as against 4-8 years and worse were the norm in all the institutions.

And the above is nothing new. In 1964, the Government of India constituted the first Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals and the Director of Haffkine Institute was a member. The Blue Cross had brought the fact of the terrible conditions to the notice of both Haffkine and King Institute, but nothing was done. In the "Slaughter for Science" story referred to earlier, the plight of the horses at Kings was shown in two accompanying photographs.

Unable to defend the indefensible, KIPM and the Government of Tamilnadu finally suspended the ASVS programme. A 'culling committee' decided that 55 animals were too sick to be ever used again and recommended euthanasia. At KIPM, 'euthanasia' was administered by "bleeding the animal to death" according to KIPM's own records! Thanks to the sustained efforts of the CPCSEA and Smt. Maneka Gandhi, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, KIPM agreed not to kill the above animals and surrendered them to the CPCSEA for rehabilitation.

Mr. R. P. Khemka, Chairman of NEPC, generously agreed to make available all facilities for rehabilitation at his wind mill farm at Kollupalayam near Poolavadi in Paladum taluk near Coimbatore. All expenses for feeding these animals and providing veterinary care will be taken care of by him. The Blue Cross made available its staff and veterinary surgeons to load, transport and accompany these animals. Dr. Balakrishna Murthy of FIPPAT generously helped with a veterinarian and a car to take the vets to and from Palladum and CPCSEA nominee M. J. Badrinath also accompanied the animals to ensure their well being during transport. Our sincere appreciation for their efforts.

Mange Ward at Guindy

The ABC center at Lloyds Road became fully operational in April 2000; and has reduced the tremendous pressure for space at our Guindy center. Consequently, a separate mange isolation area has been set up at Guindy where dogs suffering from mange can be isolated, treated till cured and nursed back to health before being spayed, vaccinated and returned to their original areas.

This major activity is looked after by two of our dedicated volunteers, Mrs. Shanthi Shanker and Ms. Gayathri with the help of Dr. Vijay Anand and the Blue Cross staff. The volunteers take turns in bathing the dogs every week and ensure necessary treatment. As many as 70 dogs are there at any time in these wards, but the efforts are yielding wonderful results.

ABC Centers at Ambattur and Kanchipuram

The Ambattur municipality has agreed to make available land at Korattur for setting up an ABC center. Hopefully, the ABC operations will start from July 2001. The Ambattur municipality has also agreed to give some staff to clean the center and to be trained in dog catching. This training is planned from May 10.

The Kanchipuram municipality has sanctioned Rs.1,00,000 for an ABC programme and has approached the Blue Cross to take up this programme. Details are being worked out and the municipality has promised to give some land for this purpose.

Tortured Primates

In February this year, 10 bonnet monkeys were handed over to the CPCSEA by the Christian Medical College at Vellore. The CPCSEA in turn requested the Blue Cross to take up the rehabilitation of these animals. With tremendous effort, these have now been re-socialized in two groups of five each and have progressed to the point where we plan to sterilize these animals and reintroduce them in the forest areas identified by the Forest Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.

Thanks to the efforts of the CPCSEA in making it clear that the laws governing animal experiments will be enforced in all seriousness, several institutions illegally holding animals and carrying out experiments without having them authorized by either the Institutional Animals Ethics Committee (IAEC) in the case of small laboratory animals or the CPCSEA sub-committee in the case of large animals such as primates, have started to surrender them to the CPCSEA.

While we know that all these animals need rehabilitation, the case of the primates is specially felt. Many of them have been kept in isolation for years in terrible conditions. Many have been used in the most ridiculously unplanned studies such as the "learned responses experiments" carried out at the A L Mudaliar Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, (ALMIBMS), University of Madras, at Taramani.

On April 17, 2001, the Blue Cross of India collected one adult and three young bonnet monkeys from ALMIBMS, University of Madras, on behalf of the CPCSEA. The medical records, which were handed over by the ALMIBMS, only indicated inconsequential health problems of these animals during their incarceration in the laboratory. However, when removed from their small cages at the Blue Cross shelters at Kunnam Village, it was found that all the three young monkeys were suffering from paralysis of their lower body. Dr. Namasivayam of ALMIBMS confessed that the monkeys had been subjected to procedures that involved severing of parts of the spinal chord. The incident once again exposes the claims made by researchers that they take good care of animals used by them.

Post - research Rehabilitation Center

The Blue Cross is planning to construct a rehabilitation center at Kunnam Village, adjoining the existing Blue Cross hospital and shelters. The estimated cost, when completed, will be about Rs.60 lakhs. It will include quarantine areas, isolation rooms and all facilities including a surgery. There seems to be no alternative but to vasectomize all primate males and perform an ovario-hysterectomy on all females before reintroduction in the wild. Old animals or those that may find it difficult to survive for any reason will spend the rest of their lives in as comfortable a manner as possible at the center.

We have already impressed upon the Government of India that any proposal to use animals in research must consider the post-research rehabilitation of these animals and this cost must be borne by the institute concerned. Till recently, no monetary price tag has been placed on many animals used in research for several reasons. These include the fact that all dogs used till recently were pets and community dogs captured by municipalities; all cats supplied to medical institutions till now were stolen pets caught by organized gypsy gangs and other thieves; monkeys were being illegally captured using "permits" given by the Forest Officials in many states when they had no power to do so, since the monkey is on the Schedule the Wildlife Act, etc.

The enforcement of the Pound Seizure Act proposed by the Blue Cross in 1996 and passed by the Government of India in 1998 has now made it illegal and difficult to obtain dogs from dog pounds. Last year, the vigilance of NGOs in Mangalore and Mysore uncovered evidence of such illegal acts by the Mangalore Medical College and several medical schools in Mysore, who were getting dogs from their respective municipal pounds. Immediate action by the Ministry of Social justice stopped recurrence of such offences. Mrs. Geetha Manja of Mysore and Ms. Suma Ramesh of Mangalore deserve our congratulations for their wonderful work in this field.

(The full gazette notification of the 1998 pound seizure act is available on our website)

Lactonil

Infoods Inc. of the Textan group of companies has been generously donating tins of Lactonil, a baby food. This has taurine in its formulation and is especially useful for cats brought up on a vegetarian diet. Taurine is an essential amino acid that cats cannot synthesize on their own. Organizations having animal shelters, who would like to use Lactonil may write to us giving an undertaking that this would be used exclusively for feeding the cats and dogs in their shelters.

Role of Animals in the Ecology

The Blue Cross of India carried out a project on "Role of Animals in the Ecology" between June 2000 and April 2001, funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, through the C. P. R. Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC) under the scheme of Environmental Orientation to School Education in the Uttiramerur and Kaatangulathur blocks of Kanchipuram.

Five teachers' training programmes, attended by 161 teachers were conducted covering topics such as "Animal Biodiversity", "Role of Animals in the Ecology", "Animal Welfare" and the importance of not using animals in the beauty business. The training programmes were supported by slides, publications of the Blue Cross and the CPREEC, besides several innovative activities such as demonstrations of the COMPU dissection series, role play and a visit to Auroville.

This was followed by 50 programmes for a total of 14,978 students, whose comprehension of the project was evaluated through inter-school painting competitions.