Bengal board curbs lab cruelty

Kolkata: West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) Secretary Swapan Kumar Sarkar in a notice stated: "In respect of experiments on animals, about the necessity of food and oxygen (Group 'C', Unit-III of class VI general science syllabus), the authors must avoid dissections using rats, birds and toads."

 

"Instead they can use common pests like cockroach and air breathing fish (cat fish)," he said.

 

Last year, PETAhad learned from a few parents that WBBSE was prescribing `unnecessary' experiments on animals for its class VI students. The organisation immediately wrote a letter to the West Bengal school education minister, requesting him to abandon such experiments on animals.

 

PETA also followed up with many government authorities and the Union Human Resources Development Ministry.

 

The animal rights organisation filed a request under the Right to Information (RTI) Act asking information about the status of an earlier request to stop the experiments.

 

"It's a huge victory for animals who suffer everyday in painful and unnecessary experiments," said PETA campaign coordinator Dharmesh Solanki.

 

Source: IANS