Protest over animal testing facility

By Patrick Lee

KUALA LUMPUR : A group of animal rights activists gathered outside the Indian High Commission here to protest against a proposed Indian-based animal testing facility in Malacca.

Consisting of members from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Selangor, the group handed over a memorandum to Indian High Commissioner Vijay Gokhale.

Some of the concerns laid out in the memorandum highlighted the alleged mistreatment of animals in research laboratories, as well the lack of scientific validity involving animal testing.

SPCA Selangor suggested alternatives such as studying post-mortem tissues.

Owned by Indian company Vivo Bio Tech Ltd, the RM500 million facility is expected to use Malaysian long-tailed macauques and Beagles for testing purposes upon completion.

'Subject to mutilation'

“If the Indian people knew what was going on in Malaysia, they would be shocked,” said Rochelle Regodon, a spokesperson for PETA.

“The animals would be subject to mutilation, testing without anesthesia and other forms of painful mistreatment. Since these monkeys were not allowed to be exported, they were instead going to be used for experimentation,” she added.

Regodon also told FMT that the planned facility was part of a worrying trend in “weaker” countries such as Malaysia.

According to the PETA spokesperson, corporations that were based in countries with more stringent laws tend to set up their operations in countries where there was no applicable animal rights law.

“Last year, a French company wanted to come to Johor to do the same thing. We then went to meet several EU ministers in the country, and this project was stalled,” she said.

Asked where most of the test animals came from, Regodon said that she did not know.

Also present was DAP Senator S Ramakrishnan, who explained that while Pakatan Rakyat was not aware of animal testing as a whole, he was personally following the issue.

In a statement to the media, Ramakrishnan said that tests on animals did not equate to successful usage on humans.

He also said Malaysian laws should be amended so that it would be legal to test on humans, so long as they wanted to use the products in question.

SPCA Selangor's chair Christine Chin also said it had gathered over 6,000 signatures in an online petition.

It will be submitted to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as soon as it reaches the 10,000-mark.

At the moment, PETA does not have a branch in Malaysia. Its nearest branch is located in the Philippines.