INDIA: An Indian publisher has caused a furor with a school textbook that encourages children to suffocate kittens as part of a scientific experiment.
The book, which is used in hundreds of private schools in India, includes an experiment in which two kittens were placed in separate boxes — only one of which had airholes.
“Put a small kitten in each box. Close the boxes. After some time open the boxes. What do you see? The kitten inside the box without holes has died,” read the text.
Animal rights activists said several schools had already pulled the offending page from the book, entitled “Our Green World.”
They have also secured a promise from the publisher that it will not be included in the next edition.
“It might be stupid, but they were endangering the lives of the children and animals by citing such an experiment,” Vidhi Matta, spokeswoman for the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations, told AFP on Wednesday.
Matta said she was unaware of any student actually conducting the experiment.
Indian textbooks frequently make the headlines for their glaring mistakes and controversial content.
Last week a passage from a textbook in Maharashtra state caused outrage over its assertion that “ugly” and “handicapped” women had led to a rise in dowries claimed by the groom’s family.
One government textbook in central Chhattisgarh state blamed women for a rise in unemployment, while another claimed that Japan had dropped nuclear bombs on the US during World War II.
Try suffocating kittens, Indian textbook tells kids
Try suffocating kittens, Indian textbook tells kids
Recovery of missing dog Boro brings hope after Spain’s train crashes
- On Thursday, forest firefighters in southern Spain found the black-and-white pooch
- Photos of Boro, a medium-sized black dog with white eyebrows, went viral
MADRID: After back-to-back fatal train crashes sent shock waves through Spain, some good news arrived on Thursday: Boro, the missing dog, was found.
Days earlier, Boro’s owner Ana García issued a desperate plea to help find him after the dog bolted Sunday in the aftermath of the high-speed train crash in southern Spain that killed at least 45 people. García, 26, and her pregnant sister were traveling with Boro on the train that derailed.
On Thursday, forest firefighters in southern Spain found the black-and-white pooch, and posted images that showed García with one of her legs in a brace embracing Boro. Sitting inside a car, she spoke to reporters.
“Many thanks to all of Spain and everyone who has got involved so much,” she said. “It gave me great hope and we’ve done it.”
The search for Boro appeared to provide Spaniards something to hope for amid the week’s tragedy, and ultimately something to celebrate.
For days, people had rallied online to find him, amplifying García’s call by sharing video of an interview she had given to local media. Photos of Boro, a medium-sized black dog with white eyebrows, went viral alongside phone numbers for García and her family. Spanish television broadcasters and newspapers covered the search.
García, her sister and the dog had been traveling Sunday by high-speed train from Malaga, their hometown in southern Spain, to the capital Madrid, when the tail of their train car jumped the rails for reasons that remain unclear, and smashed into another train.
The collision killed dozens and injured more than 150 people. Rescue crews helped García and her sister out of the tilted train car. That’s when she briefly saw Boro before he ran. She spoke to the cameras with a blanket draped over her shoulders and a bandage on her cheek after Spain’s worst rail accident in more than a decade.
“Please, if you can help, look for the animals,” a limping García told reporters at the time, choked up and holding back tears. “We were coming back from a family weekend with the little dog, who’s family, too.”
On Thursday, she had a bruise beneath her eye but, with Boro back by her side, also a smile plastered across her face.
“Now we have him and we have him for all our life,” García told reporters. “Now let’s go home, buddy.”
