Unlawful surgical procedures on live animals have been carried out at an unnamed Sydney medical facility in breach of the state laws on animal research, sparking calls for a parliamentary inquiry.

It has been revealed that the government has been made aware of the case, but did not prosecute either the institution or those responsible for using the live animals without the approval of an animal ethics committee.

The operations were discovered during an official count of the number of live animals being used in experiments for the Animal Research Review Panel's (ARRP) 2014-15 annual report.

The report also details complaints about another long-running research project, its impact on the animals, changes made without approval of the ethics committee and the length of time taken to investigate concerns. It was investigated and changes are being monitored by the panel, but there were no prosecutions.

Shatha Hamade, legal counsel for Animals Australia, said it was an offence under NSW legislation to use any vertebrate animals for research and teaching without first obtaining approval from an animal care and ethics committee.

"The maximum penalty for such unlawful behaviour is a $3300 fine or imprisonment for 12 months, or both," said Ms Hamade.

There have only ever been two prosecutions In NSW, one for the unlawful supply of animals for research and one for unlawfully carrying out animal research.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said prosecutions could only be undertaken by the secretary of the department under the Animal Research Act 1985.

"The minister has no role in these decisions," she said.

The revelations about unlawful use of live animals has sparked calls for an inquiry and for legislative reform.

Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi said: "If there are animal experiments happening without approval from ethics committees, it is clear that there are significant problems with the system. There must be a parliamentary inquiry into this urgently to ensure that these issues are fixed."

Animal Justice Party MP Mark Pearson said it was not acceptable that there were hidden crimes against animals. "The public needs to be aware of what is going on."

Humane Research Australia chief executive Helen Marston said " the public are often given reassurances that there are regulations in place to protect animals, but clearly they are not working".

Last month Fairfax Media revealed more than 6 million animals, including baboons, dogs, cats, goats ,guinea pigs and native mammals, are being used every year in Australia for medical research, experiments and surgical skills training and then killed. Very few survive and are rehabilitated or re-homed.

The latest figures from the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) shows the number of animals used each year in NSW for experiments and research has risen more than 265,000 in the past financial year to almost 3 million animals.

The ARRP annual report, which is the only public insight into animal experimentation and research in NSW, has revealed that the unlawful major surgery for "training" was performed on rats and involved cutting open the abdomen and then keeping them live for some time before they were killed.

The report said "the AEC (Animal Ethics Committee) had not been aware of this use of rats, and would not have considered the procedure justified".

"The panel assessed that the AEC's processes for the consideration and approval of teaching using animals required significant revision to ensure all teaching using animals was properly considered..."

A DPI spokeswoman said they would not name the facility due to confidentiality provisions of the animal research act.

"No penalty was considered necessary in this case and measures have been implemented to prevent a recurrence," she said.

She said the participants believed they had approval to use the rats and "there was no clear attempt to circumvent the system".

The revelations have also sparked moves for law reforms.

Dr Faruqi said she would be introducing a bill to establish an independent regulatory body to administer animal welfare activities across the state.

"The way the government deals with animal welfare just isn't working. The system is broken.. These latest revelations clearly point to the need of another mechanism to fill the gaping holes in current process and practice," said Dr Faruqi.

Mr Pearson has called for a commissioner of animal well-being to be appointed. He, too, has drawn up a private members bill aimed at banning the use of primates in experiments in NSW.

Do you know more? n.obrien@fairfaxmedia.com.au