70 Beagles will be freed soon: Centre informs PETA

CHENNAI: An animal rights advocacy group today said it has been informed by the Centre that 70 Beagles imported from China as pets but lodged in an animal quarantine centre here "will be freed soon."

PETA India said it has received notice from Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision on Experimentation on Animals (CPCSEA) under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, that the 70 Beagles which were imported by Advinus Therapeutics Limited, a pharmaceutical laboratory in Bangalore, "will be freed soon."

"The rescue was approved after PETA notified the Ministry of Environment and Forests that the dogs were wrongly described as "pets", in an Animal Quarantine and Certification Service (AQCS) document rather than their actual intended purpose, to be experimented on," Dr Chaitanya Koduri, Science Policy Adviser, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India said in a statement.

"PETA India had also learned that Cathay Pacific Airways, which has a strict policy against transporting animals to laboratories, was misinformed by the supplier, Beijing Marshall Biotechnology Co, Ltd, that the dogs would not be used by or killed in a laboratory," he said.

He recalled that Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had inspected the Beagles and said PETA thanks her for "giving the serious attention to this case that it deserves".

Dogs, beagles in particular, are used for various tests because of their friendly and docile nature, Koduri said.