New Delhi: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Wednesday urged five prominent medical colleges in Delhi to end use of animals in medical training.

The PETA has sent letters to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Maulana Azad Medical College, Lady Hardinge Medical College, University College of Medical Sciences and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and asked them to replace the use of animals with modern methods.

The letters recommends that colleges adopt computer-assisted models to replace animals. "This is a major step forward in medical education," says Anuradha Srivastava, the PETA India campaigner.

"The colleges now have the opportunity not only to spare animals' lives but to provide students with the most modern training methods available," she said.

Many top medical-training institutions in the US - including the Harvard Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine - no longer have live-animal laboratories, she said.

Instead they use alternatives to animal experiments like interactive computer models, non-invasive human-based experiments and high-tech human patient simulators that breathe and respond to drugs and treatment just as humans do, she added. IANS