The batch of beagles which landed at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport,a few months ago may have gone the way many other hapless dogs did:whisked off to Ranbaxy's Lab for drug testing.But then,public opinion willed otherwise. Testing on beagles is supposedly mandatory for approval by the US Food & Drug Administration.The beagles were lucky but an estimated 50 lakh animals-guinea pigs,rabbits,monkeys and the like-end in labs every year,across the country.Science savants like Sandeep.K.Basu(director of Delhi-based National Institue of Immunology),strongly feel that "Society has to decide whether human health is more important than animals." Under the new rules,"They have to ensure that animals are not subjected to unnecessary pain or suffering before,during or after the performance of experiments on them." Also it is widely known fact that in-vitro tests(outside the body of a living organism) are cheaper,faster and more reliable than in-vivo tests(inside the organism).Says Iqbal Malik,reknowned environmentalist and expert palaeontologist,"I am not harsh on people who do drug research.But to study third degree burns,if you dip an animal in boiling water and then observe its suffering for three days,I will call it redundant research." Scroll on to find out about some of the inhuman tests being conducted on laboratory animals. Excruciating experiments LD 50: In the "Lethal Dose 50 Percent test",animals are force-fed with chemicals used in a cosmetic until 50 percent of them die.Developed in 1927,the test gives no data on symptomology and toxicity. Draize test: Developed in 1938,a rabbit is confined in a device with only the head exposed.The substance is inserted into the eye and the irritation measured. Blinding tests: Albino rabbits are strapped tightly.Lower eyelids are pulled back and the test substance is poured.Later they are examined for ulcerated corneas and blindness. Agression: Electric current is passed through an electrode fixedin the hypothalamus of a monkey to analyse behaviour patterns. Stress: A monkey is made to stand in a cage on its forelimbs for days without sleep.Data is collected on BP and other body activities. Pain: Spinal nerves are sectioned off to study whether pain will lead to self-mutilation. Burn: Animals are immersed in boiling water or put on flames to create third degree burns.The healing time is studied and analysed.