Dr Dipti Kapoor was a firebrand for animal rights. She saved the lives of millions of animals who would have otherwise been used in cruel tests, and helped modernize science. 

• Dipti was fiercely passionate about her work to replace the use of horses and other equines in antitoxin production. She partnered closely with her PETA colleagues to demonstrate to researchers in India and around the world how animal-free methods can be used instead of animals to produce life-saving treatments for diphtheria, venomous spider bites, and other conditions. 

• Her willingness to approach even the most committed proponents of animal testing with a smile and kind heart granted her access to executives and senior staff at an incredible number of government agencies, scientific organizations, and companies. 

• She was instrumental in getting the notorious Draize test, in which rabbits were restrained while chemicals were applied to their eyes or shaved skin, banned in India. Now, instead, non-animal test methods are used. 

• She brought about a big win for animals by convincing India’s Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee to make significant changes to a guidance document, resulting in increased acceptance of non-animal testing methods for pesticides. 

• Following her persistent efforts, the abnormal toxicity test, in which animals are injected with a vaccine or other medicine to test its potential toxicity, was removed from the Indian Pharmacopeia, sparing thousands of guinea pigs and mice from this notorious, flawed test. 

• Through her regular interactions with the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, she was instrumental in convincing regulators to propose to reduce required tests on cows, rabbits and other animals for the production of drugs and for the development of test methods for assessing drugs. 

• Her recommendations prompted the Bureau of Indian Standards to replace a test on guinea pigs used for detecting and identifying anthrax contamination with humane microbiological methods, sparing countless gentle guinea pigs from excruciatingly painful deaths. 

Dipti was also as fun and loved by her colleagues as she was bold and intelligent.   

The animals have lost a champion, and we have lost a dear friend. In honour of her memory, and for the animals whom she cared for deeply, we, her colleagues at PETA, will vigorously continue her efforts to end animal tests in ways that would have made her proud.