Horses used in research rehabilitated

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, MARCH 26. Forty-six horses whose blood were used for anti- venom serum research at the Chennai-based King Institute, have been rehabilitated at Udamalpet in Coimbatore district.

Some of the horses were on the verge of death when they were brought to the rehabilitation centre at Kollupalayam near Poolavadi in Gudimangalam block in Udamalpet taluk.

Owing to the death of 19 horses in August 2000, the issue of producing anti-venom serum through alternative methods and rehabilitating the exploited animals, became a matter of urgency.

Thanks to the gesture of Mr. Ravi Prakash Khemka, NEPC Group of Companies, the horses have now been stabled on a few acres of land adjacent the company's wind farm, at its own cost.

This followed the initiative taken by the ``Committee for the purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals'', which comes under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Mr. M. J. Badrinath, a nominee of the committee, who is looking after the horses at the stable at Udamalpet, said institutes doing research on animals should submit protocols which would be vetted by the ethics committee, to prevent repetition of experiments.

Even for human beings, there is a restriction on blood donation after 55 years, whereas horses which have only a life span of 25 years were exploited for research upto even 24 years.

Started in 1960, the committee became active only in 1998. Out of over 100 horses at Chennai, the committee identified 53 which required immediate attention. Five of the horses with their ponies were in very poor condition and not fit for transportation were being rehabilitated in Chennai.

These horses, after being in Defence forces, were gifted to the King Institute for the research purpose where they were bled and most of them were sterilised also.

Research Institutes have a constraint of not being able to divert their research funds for rehabilitation. While two horses died owing to tetanus attack, some of the 46 remaining animals have hoof injuries and cannot even stand. Three are almost blind owing to cataract caused by excessive bleeding.

About 70 more horses are in good condition at Chennai and the Committee is looking forward to the participation of corporate houses to rehabilitate the remaining animals at Pune in Maharashtra and in Kausouli in Himachal Pradesh, where such similar researches are going on.

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Section  : Southern States
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