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Textbook instructing Indian students to kill cats sparks anger

Xinhua, February 11, 2017 Adjust font size:

A textbook has triggered discontent in India for teaching elementary students to suffocate cats as an experiment to learn that living beings must breathe air.

The environmental science textbook for fourth graders, entitled "Our Green World, " instructs students to put two cats in separate boxes, one with airholes and the other without, so as to learn that "No living thing can live without air for more than a few minutes."

"You can do an experiment. Take two wooden boxes. Make holes on the lid of one box. 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," the textbook reads.

The textbook has been used in hundreds of schools since last April in New Delhi and the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana, the AP reported.

The publisher of the textbook announced on Friday that it was no longer reprinted and would not be prescribed for the new school year following complaints from some parents.

"They said it was harmful for children and cruel to the animals," said the publisher.

The textbook has sparked outrage on social media. "Zero wisdom & unfit to step on curriculum, or be anywhere around impressionable children," twitter user @Tamil1974 commented. Endi