'UGC tells varsities to stop experiments on animals'

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked universities and colleges to completely stop dissection and experimentation on animals for zoology and life science courses, animal rights group PETA said Tuesday.

"By issuing a notification to eliminate animal dissection and experimentation for training purposes, the UGC will modernise science education across the country and save precious lives," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' science policy advisor Chaitanya Koduri said in a statement.

UGC's decision is an improvement to the partial ban on dissection issued in 2011, he said.

"The commission's latest action is now in line with the 2012 ministry of environment and forests' directive to UGC and other education bodies to completely stop dissection and experimentation on animals for training both undergraduate and post-graduate students and to use non-animal methods of teaching instead," added Koduri.

According to PETA, this move by UGC will save an estimated 19 million animals every year.