New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS): After the European Parliament passed a resolution that commits to phase out animal experiments, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, requesting him to take similar action in India.

PETA India also shared its Research Modernisation Deal - a document that outlines the failure of studies on animals to lead to treatments and cures for humans and provides a comprehensive strategy to move away from the use of animals, similar to what PETA entities had presented to European leaders prior to the resolution's near-unanimous passing.

"Many monkeys, dogs, rats and other animals are mutilated, burnt, blinded, cut open, poisoned, and drugged in laboratories every year. Not only are these tests cruel, their results are also inapplicable to humans because of the vast physiological differences among species. Modern methods, such as in vitro and in silico tests, are reliable, human-relevant, and more cost-efficient than those involving animals," PETA India said in a release.

"As the EU has demonstrated, phasing out animal tests is the future. It is crucial that India does not fall behind international developments in science and animal welfare," said PETA India science policy advisor, Ankita Pandey.

"Moving away from unreliable and unethical tests on animals and instead investing in superior, non-animal methods will be better for humans, other animals, and the future of science," Pandey added.

In India, testing cosmetics or their ingredients on animals was banned in 2014, as was the importation of animal-tested cosmetics. Last year, the government released the Cosmetics Rules 2020, which include provisions to strengthen the ban on the importation of animal-tested cosmetics.

However, the testing of cosmetics is only one type out of many animal experiments conducted on animals. Animals are still subjected to painful experiments for testing chemicals and drugs or for conducting biomedical research, the release added.