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Teachers who should be sowing the seeds of respect towards animals in the children under their care, in fact are the worst offenders regarding treatment of animals. People dump stray dogs and cats at schools in the hope the schools will take care of them. Instead of teaching the children how to deal with this problem and to care for the animals, most teachers immediately call the hokensho. This of course teaches the children that animals are disposable things that should be treated like rubbish. There was one case where a teacher threw a stray dog which had followed the children into the building, out of an upstairs window, saying " we don't want a dirty stray dog in here." Fortunately parents protested at this action and the teacher was forced to apologize. The dog was treated for four broken legs at a hospital with money collected from the students and eventually was adopted by one of the parents.
Many primary schools and kindergartens keep small animals; rabbits, chicken, hamsters etc: ostensibly to teach children how to care for them. However, much depends on the teachers and many of these animals are kept in tiny cages, neglected and during the summer holidays left to die. Certainly the Japanese education system with its rote learning of facts, seldom includes social issues in the curriculum, let alone animal welfare.
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