Citing Objectionable Practices, Delhi High Court Halts Palamur Biosciences From Procuring New Animals, Orders Interim Remedial Action, Following PETA India Petition

For Immediate Release:

10 July 2025

Contact: 

Dr Anjana Aggarwal; [email protected]  

Delhi—Following a petition filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India), a bench consisting of Justice Sachin Datta of the High Court of Delhi ordered the government body Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiment on Animals (CCSEA) to take interim remedial steps against Palamur Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. while citing the objectionable findings and recommendations of the inspection report that was submitted to CCSEA on 17 June 2025, particularly in relation to the company’s handling, housing, euthanasia practices, and veterinary care of animals. The inspection report, prepared by a CCSEA-appointed committee inter alia recommended urgent review of the facility’s registration to breed and experiment on animals and the rehabilitation of all 1200+ animals it houses. The court has also prohibited Palamur Biosciences from procuring or housing any new animals. Additionally, a fresh inspection of the facility has been ordered within the next week in the presence of representatives from PETA India and CCSEA is directed to take requisite steps to address areas of concern identified. CCSEA is further directed to file a status report within two weeks and the case is now listed for further hearing on 4 August 2025.

PETA India, represented by Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Senior Advocate and Keystone Partners, argued that despite over three weeks passing since the inspection was carried out (on 11-12 June 2025), no corrective action has been taken against Palamur Biosciences by the CCSEA. Instead, further audits were reportedly carried out, which would only provide Palamur Biosciences an opportunity for a cosmetic clean-up of its facility. The High Court noted that ‘urgent interim directions are necessitated to ameliorate the conditions of animals’.

Through its petition, PETA India sought an urgent enforcement of a central government-appointed inspection committee recommendation for ‘immediate regulatory action…including the removal and rehabilitation of animals in order to prevent further pain and suffering’ at Palamur Biosciences. The inspection report also recommended a review of Palamur Biosciences’ registration and breeding license status following an extensive inspection. Additionally, PETA India’s petition seeks a permanent revocation of registrations and approvals held by the facility and its complete closure.

The government inspection took place after PETA India released a whistleblower-led exposé, including internal video, of the Telangana-based beagle breeder and contract laboratory that accepts contracts from foreign clients, in June. PETA India’s petition highlights this abuse and the facility’s documented history of deliberate concealment and falsification of data.

Previously, in a historic first, on 16 June 2025, a First Information Report was registered by Boothpur Police Station, Mahabubnagar, under Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 against Palamur Biosciences for apparent violation of Sections 34, 269, 289, 337 and 429 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. This is the first time a police charge has been filed against an animal experimentation laboratory in India.

The copy of the government-appointed inspection report, photographs and video footage provided by whistleblowers, the FIR copy, a copy of PETA India’s petition filed before the Delhi High Court and the court’s recent order are available upon request.

The recommendations of the inspection report submitted to CCSEA on 17 June 2025 have been signed off by Dr Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA), Member and Director of Indian Council for Medical Research-National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research; Dr Vivek Tyagi, Senior Consultant CCSEA; a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India; two nominees of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee and Alokparna Sengupta, Managing Director of Humane World for Animals. Ms Sengupta has reportedly written to Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying expressing concern over the delay in acting on the report. Yet, instead of acting on the report, the CCSEA recently issued a ‘Public Notice’ on its website defaming PETA India, in a highly irregular move seemingly aimed at protecting Palamur Biosciences, a private company, and its corporate interests at all costs.

The inspectors’ report shows that Palamur Biosciences uses dogs (beagles), pigs, sheep, cattle (including cows), monkeys, rats, mice and rabbits for experiments although initially denying some of these species were held at the facility. Among the laboratory failings and abuses described in the report, the inspectors found:

Palamur Biosciences failed to be able to produce any inventory of the animals it houses. The inspectors counted over 1232 animals on the premises, a headcount revealing far more dogs than approved by CCSEA.

‘Surplus’ animals are haphazardly stuffed into repurposed rooms, adjacent to where experiments are taking place, but without health screens or attention to biosecurity.

Across all species, animals are reused in painful experiments, often within weeks of being used for other studies—a violation of CCSEA guidelines. A dog in an experiment was permitted to suffer severe tremors and was finally killed. Cows are also experimented on and were found in poor body condition.

73 dogs are under so-called rehabilitation in a ‘make-shift arrangement’, facing the exact same bleak housing conditions as dogs used for breeding and experiments.

Dogs are kept on hard, uncomfortable perforated floors without bedding or any enrichment, outdoor access or suitable exercise or playtime. Dogs in the breeding section were forced to languish in their own filth. An insufficient, small ‘play area’ with a hard floor seems to exist only in name.

Other species were also relegated to barren cages. There are no outdoor enclosures, even for non-human primates.

Dogs were observed in poor condition, such as suffering from cherry eye and were underweight, yet there were no appropriate medical records of any kind and no evidence of any treatments for sick animals. The general body condition of minipigs and cows was poor.

An animal handler roughly handled a dog by the scruff in front of inspectors. The inspectors noted, ‘The casual manner in which this was done suggests that the rough handling is a routine and accepted practice…’ (other manhandling was shown on the whistleblowers’ video, including slamming the dogs’ legs in cage bars).

Animals are moved around the facility without due disease checks and health screens.

Minipigs are forced to stand on drainage, which can trap the feet of cloven-footed animals.

White Yorkshire mixed breed pigs were not initially disclosed to the inspection team. Their use for heart-related experiments came to light through a staff member’s accidental admission.

It was initially denied by the facility that any sheep were at the facility, but the inspectors found seven sheep there.

Narrow metal platforms inside the monkey cages made it hard for them to sit or lie down comfortably.

Twelve cows, all underweight, are kept without adequate protection from the elements and were standing in wet mud.

Claims of animal care by Palamur Biosciences did not match the CCTV footage.

Sedatives which are required for humane euthanasia, are not used before killing dogs and a lack of sufficient drugs of many kinds indicates severely inadequate euthanasia procedures.

Dogs are only fed once a day.

The inspectors noted, ‘There is a glaring absence of a proper record-keeping system’ at Palamur Biosciences including a failure to note the frequency of use of each animal in experiments. The inspectors note, ‘This fragmented and superficial record-keeping reflects a seriously negligent approach to both regulatory compliance and animal welfare standards.’

The inspectors note, ‘There is a complete absence of dedicated quarantine facilities across all animal housing units,’ posing significant risk to animal health, biosecurity and disease containment.

Primates are wild-caught and the current screening protocol does not check for Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) which is transmissible monkey to monkey and from monkeys to humans.

The inspectors note, ‘An anxiety, fear and distress management protocol’ is not in place. Inspectors noted that two monkeys undergoing an experiment that involves an incision creating a wound, is done without any sedatives.

The inspectors note, ‘No structured, on-site veterinary documents were available…’

There were hardly any medicines available given the animal population, and no sedatives, analgesics or anaesthetics and no emergency or pain-management medicines.

Only two veterinarians were present during the inspection, raising serious concerns about the availability veterinary care at the facility. There is no veterinary coverage during night hours and night staff are not in the animal quarters during them.

The inspectors noted an inconsistency with approved protocols vs. the number of animals.

Only curated CCTV footage was made available to inspectors, even after repeated requests.

The inspectors note the overall approach to animal welfare and care at the facility ‘reflects a deeply troubling lack of commitment to the health and wellbeing of the animals in its custody’.

The inspectors’ report concludes, ‘The operational deficiencies observed at PBPL [Palamur Biosciences] are not isolated incidents but indicative of entrenched structural, procedural and ethical failures. The scale and severity of non-compliances documented during the inspection raise significant concerns regarding the facility’s adherence to established standards of animal welfare and regulatory accountability. The situation demands urgent attention—particularly with respect to the removal and rehabilitation of animals to prevent further pain, distress or suffering. The findings also call for a critical review of the facility’s registration and breeding license in view of the serious and repeated deviations from prescribed norms.’ Animal welfare and rights groups are standing by to assist in rehoming and rehabilitation of the animals.

PETA India’s whistleblower-led exposé revealed beagles crammed into enclosures so overcrowded that they caused bloody wounds to each other, minipigs poisoned so roughly they bled, and wild-caught terrified monkeys being experimented on among other cruelties. Insider allegations included lack of painkillers, dogs becoming immobile and dying from procedures and manhandling of animals. Cruelty to animals and mismanagement has been borne out by the inspectors’ report.

Dr Anjana Aggarwal, Scientist and Research Policy Advisor, PETA India says, ‘We are grateful to the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi for making clear that nobody can be above the law, and ordering remedial action to address the suffering of animals at Palamur Biosciences. Instead of acting on the whistleblowers’ accounts or the recommendations of its own inspectors who corroborated misconduct and advised over 1200 animals must be immediately rescued from the facility, CCSEA has instead been trying to attack, defame and intimidate PETA India. PETA India now seeks complete shutdown of Palamur Biosciences.’

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that ‘animals are not ours to experiment on’ – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA India’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow PETA India on X, Facebook, or Instagram. 

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