How ethical is it to create ill-formed creatures to satisfy our scientific urges and leave them to suffer a life infested with disease and stigma? Indian scientists were crossbreeding Asian and African lions and even lions and tigers in free-for-all experiments to create new sub-species. The practice stopped only with the enforcement of government guidelines in 1992. Most of the products of such experiments grew up deceased and deformed. Recently, vasectomies were performed on 300 such crossbred lions in Indian zoos and parks as part of a "controlled extinction' programme to make them to die a "natural death'.

"We're looking at another four years for the stock to end but we're not denying them any animal welfare facilities,' said Bipul Chakravarty, senior scientist at the Central Zoo Authority, which devised the programme. Indian authorities say these crossbred lions have weakened the genetic pool of Indian cats. They have imposed strict laws on mating at zoos and safari parks to clean up the genetic pool. "It may sound politically incorrect but it's a controlled exinction programme to set right the chaos that occurred in the 1980s when African lions rescued from circuses mixed with Asiatic cats in our zoos,' said a senior Union environment and forests ministry official.