Award-Winning Actor and Director Adivi Sesh Urges Rescue of Beagles and Other Animals Bred and Poisoned by Telangana-Based Palamur Biosciences After PETA India Exposé

Telugu cinema actor and director Adivi Sesh has fired off a letter to the chairman of the central government Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA), Dr. Abhijit Mitra, urging him to allow the beagles and other animals at Palamur Biosciences to be rehomed and rehabilitated with loving families and other safe places and to stop the facility from breeding or experimenting on any other animals. Among Sesh’s many accolades are the IIFA Award for the Best Screenplay and the Nandi Award for the Best Screenplay Writer for the movie Kshanam, and the SIIMA Award for Critics Best Actor for the movie Major.

Last week, PETA India publicised a first-of-its-kind whistleblower exposé uncovering apparent egregious abuse of dogs, rhesus macaques and minipigs at Telangana-based Palamur Biosciences Pvt Ltd, a government-registered contract laboratory that tests drugs, pesticides, and medical devices on animals, often for foreign clients. Palamur Biosciences is self-proclaimed as “one of the largest preclinical service providers” in India.

“I earnestly urge you to stop Palamur Biosciences Pvt Ltd. from using or breeding animals and to take steps to ensure the surviving animals are sent to loving homes and reputed sanctuaries. The world is moving away from the use of animals in experiments and toward modern non-animal means, and so must we.” – Sesh Adivi, in his letter

According to the whistleblowers who contacted PETA India, this laboratory which poisons beagles and other animals as a matter of course, has reportedly subjected animals to overcrowded cages or in other cases social isolation, environments that caused animals injuries and infections, and an often painful death when the animals are deemed no longer of use. Among the reported abuses, whistleblowers say:

• Palamur kept more beagles than the facility could properly house—some 1,500 dogs in a space designed for a maximum of about 800, forcing three to four dogs into cages meant for just two. The overcrowding, coupled with a lack of socialization and competition for food, led to extreme frustration and frequent fights, often causing serious injuries, especially to the dogs’ ears. Despite these wounds, the company failed to provide basic care, neglecting both proper wound cleaning and pain management.
• Animal care staff at Palamur were seen handling dogs roughly, with some workers kicking the animals or carelessly closing cage doors on their legs. A whistleblower claimed dogs sustained fractures from rough handling.
• In some studies conducted by Palamur, dogs were injected with test compounds under the skin (subcutaneously). These injections—either due to the compounds themselves or impurities in their formulation—sometimes caused infections at the injection sites. These infections could spread, eating through the skin and damaging the underlying tissue, leaving the dogs with open, painful wounds. Regarding this, a whistleblower said, “Depending on the location of the abscess, there can be further health issues suffered by the dogs. For example, if the abscess is in the shoulder, that can inhibit the dog’s ability to move. They can be in severe pain; they will lose their appetite, lose weight.” Meanwhile, the other whistleblower stated the animals would suffer “like hell”.
• In other studies, dogs became very sick, suffering ulcers in their mouths or intestines. Photographs and video footage show dogs lying in pools of blood.
• The company kills dogs using thiopentone but fails to sedate them beforehand—a basic step that could reduce their fear and distress in their final moments.
• Palamur purchased Göttingen minipigs from a company in Denmark, but did not have a license to breed them. At one point, a minipig became pregnant, and the head veterinarian ordered the killing of the eight to ten piglets born. The piglets were painfully killed via intracardiac injection.
• Despite a policy requiring playtime for pigs, Palamur routinely fails to provide this. Pigs would only be given access to enrichment when customers were visiting; otherwise, they remained confined to their cages and were only removed for experimental procedures.
• Palamur obtained wild rhesus macaques from a supplier in Rajasthan. Some monkeys who had been captured tested positive for zoonotic pathogens, likely monkeypox. Despite the potential public health risk to company employees and the community at large, the company kept the matter quiet and simply killed the monkeys while risking infection to others who were used for experiments.

PETA India has submitted complaints to the CCSEA, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and the National GLP Compliance Monitoring Authority (NGCMA). PETA India is urging immediate termination of the company’s registration to use animals in testing, prosecution under applicable rules and rehabilitation of survival animals.