The Hindu : National : West Bengal bans reference to cruelty to animals in textbooks

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Thursday, Aug 30, 2007
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West Bengal bans reference to cruelty to animals in textbooks

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has decided to debar any reference or visual reproduction of animals that can be construed as cruelty in General Science and Life Science text books approved by it. Experiments will only be allowed on species not listed in existing legislation on wild life protection and in deference to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

A circular to this effect would be sent to all approved publishers and authors of text books in the two subjects, Jayanta Joy Chattopadhyay, Deputy Secretary (Academic), WBBSE told The Hindu here on Wednesday.

Nearly 13,000 schools in the State are affiliated to the WBBSE.

The decision came in the wake of complaints reaching People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, of unscientific and inhumane experiments on animals that were intimated to WBBSE.

“In one experiment, children [Class VI students] were advised to starve a parrot to death — denying it water till it dies — and seal a guinea pig till it dies of suffocation…,” a PETA release said.

The matter was referred to Partha Dey, Minister of School Education, and was subsequently placed by the WBBSE before its Life Science Subject Committee.

Mr. Chattopadhyay also said that while acknowledging that experiments on animals were necessary for knowledge, the committee agreed that “in respect of experiments on animals about the necessity of food and oxygen [in Class VI General Science syllabus], the authors must avoid dissections using rats, birds and toads and instead can use common pests like cockroaches or common air breathing fish [cat fish].”

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