A statement made by Mohamad Ali Rustam, a Malaysian minister, in defense of the animal testing lab he was setting up in his state with the help of Indian firm Vivo BioTech resulted in all hell broking loose. 'God created monkeys, and some have to be tested,' he said. One can imagine that after making this entitled statement on May 31, 2010, everyone must have come down on him hard, and rightly so. The $141 million joint-venture deal was criticised to no end.
Since rules are lax and the cost is low, many companies often choose Asia as their destination to conduct animal testing. Mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, monkeys, pigs and many more — they are all abused to conduct tests for the efficiency of medicines, cosmetics and beyond.
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One reason we have to be proud of where we live is that India became the very first South Asian country to ban not just the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on animals but also importing those cosmetics that have been tested on animals.
Last woman standing
Merely nine-weeks-old when the mighty RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, Millvina Dean is best known as the last survivor of the 'unsinkable ship'. After having to sell her memorabilia to keep up with her health bills at 91, this British civil servant passed away on May 31, 1912.
