Cruelty Free International recently certified that high-street brand Primark’s line of skin and haircare products would carry the “leaping bunny” logo indicating that they were not tested on animals. Be it cosmetics or medicine, rarely people think about the cruelty that may have gone into testing of the product to see if it was fit for human consumption. But that is changing slowly, as ethical consumers look for labels that indicate a product is cruelty-free.

This is not to say that products are introduced into the market without testing for safety. They are tested, but through alternative methods that do not involve live rabbits, monkey, beagle dogs, chimpanzees and so on, depending on whether it is a cosmetic or medicine that’s being tested. Science is about progress and innovation and progressive thinking involves testing products or learning skills through modern, alternative techniques.

Earlier this month Hindi film star, MP and former Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha sent a letter to the Medical Council of India (MCI) President Dr Jayshree Mehta calling for a ban on all animal dissection and experimentation in the teaching of post-graduate medical courses in favour of using superior and humane non-animal methods.

“Animal dissection is a vestige of a crueller, less enlightened time before modern technology and teaching methods existed,” Sinha wrote, adding that the Environment Ministry guidelines (2012) to the MCI, the Pharmacy Council of India, and the UGC had called for stopping dissection and experimentation on animals in the training of under-graduate and post-graduate students. Top international medical schools already use cost-efficient computer-assisted learning, clinical exercises and human-patient simulation technologies, Sinha said, echoing a concern raised by PETA India. It’s time India too joined this humane league, he said — a suggestion that will not just protect animals, but also turn out medical professionals who are sensitive to life in all its forms.

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