Animal welfare groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to rectify a number of concepts they found in school textbooks.
Despite the ministry having included animal rights and animal welfare in school curricula, activists said they still found examples of cruelty to animals, such as “goldfish scooping,” in school textbooks, as well as the inappropriate promotion of “animals performing circus acts” in some math test questions.
Wan Chen-chen (萬宸禎) — the head of the Education Project Section for the group Life Conservation Association (LCA) — cited as an example a Chinese textbook for fourth-graders in which one chapter deals with the topic of stray animals in a discussion entitled: “Finding a New Home for a Puppy.”
The chapter gave schoolchildren the erroneous idea that taking a lost puppy to an animal shelter is the correct way to help find new homes for stray animals, he said.
“The book fails to mention that after placing an animal in a shelter, puppies are put to death within 12 days,” he said.
Lan Yu-ching (藍瑜卿), a teacher at Bali Elementary School in New Taipei City (新北市), added that in classes such as Science and Nature, as well as Lifestyle and Technology, lessons largely focus on the basic understanding of animals, but have neglected to teach students to think about and examine issues connected to animal rights and animal welfare.
“Cruel activities, such as “goldfish scooping,” are cited in some textbooks and in lessons for elementary-school children and kindergartens. This gives the wrong impression to children and actually encourages them to abuse animals,” she said.
Wan added that in some elementary-school textbooks that address the topic of insects, limited information was presented about how to breed insects at home.
These teaching materials did not explain how the insects were captured or that these actions could be destructive to insect habitats and to the environment, he said, adding that information on the proper methods for raising insects and how to best observe their behavior were also absent.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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