A teacher who buried five newborn kittens, four of which were still alive, on school grounds in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, has been charged with violating the law on welfare and management of animals.
Papers were sent to prosecutors on Monday over the incident that occurred on March 6 at Chiba Prefectural Yakuendai High School, Sankei Shimbun reported.
The school said the 36-year-old male teacher told three students from his class to help dig the holes. The incident came to light on March 9 after one of the student's parents contacted the school.
Police quoted the teacher as saying that he had found the stray kittens on the school grounds and that he thought he should deal with them somehow as they didn't look like they would live much longer. The teacher said he later felt a deep sense of regret and remorse for having acted in such a way without thinking further.
After the story broke, the school principal apologized at a news conference. "For this type of thing to happen at our school where we highly value teaching about the importance of life, we are terribly sorry," he said.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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some14some
...does it carry any punishment?
Mirai Hayashi
More like a deep sense of remorse and regret for being caught....if he hadn't been caught, it would have been business as usual for him.
browny1
Disturbing act - that now may well prompt some serious debate on animal welfare and the suffering of many from abandoned pets to jikoku-ryori.
Amidalism
So is he still a teacher at the school or did he get fired?
nakanoguy01
feral cats are a nuisance, but burying them alive is just sick. ignore them and move on.
CrazyJoe
The punishment under Japanese law is imprisonment for a period of no more than two years and by a fine of no more than 2,000,000 yen.
smithinjapan
Thanks, CrazyJoe, for printing that.
The punishment, at max, is not near enough. Along with animal cruelty charges for EACH kitten he should be fired, sued by the school and BOE, by the parents, and in addition charged with something for subjecting these kids to his work. They are complicit in the act thanks to him, so there should be charged for that as well. And needless to say, the guy should be stripped of his license.
Commodore Shmidlap (Retired)
I was just reading a bit about animal welfare here and more shelters are needed, but I can't imagine a 36-year-old school teacher of all people not having the brains to call animal control or come up with something better than, "Let me go throw my weight around and make the kids do something stupid just because I can."
Ronald Hassem
why did he not send them to the science class for biology lessons
Paul Laimal-Convoy
What is baffling is why the pupils helped him and why he still has got a job.
Crazy Japan.
Sensato
Apparently this was at a high school in Chiba Prefecture that specializes in Agricultural studies, and this teacher's subject area was horticulture/gardening.
He grew up in a rural farming community where this has long been their method of euthanizing owner-less kittens, as opposed to the more 'modern' methods used by animal shelters. As such, in explaining himself after he was caught he said something along the lines of "this is how we did it in my rural community back home" (「（自分の）田舎ではやっていた」).
I agree this was a poor judgment call on the part of the teacher, but in his mind I am sure his intention was to show these future farmers 'how things are done on the farm.' People who have grown up in farming communities, and particularly on farms, would probably be somewhat less shocked by this teacher's mentality.
Christopher Smith
Has anyone seen how they gas animals in the shelters? Being buried alive isn’t so different, I think.
Maria
That's appalling! What a lousy excuse - he doesn't want the responsibility of killing them with his own hands - drowning, bashing in their heads, breaking their necks, etc., because it's a direct kill - but he's happy to leave them to suffer, starve, suffocate?
People treat flowers and vegetables better than they treat animals here...
Manuel Moreira
Oh this is sickening. What a horrible person,a dn to make matters worse he made his students partake in this gruesome act!
nandakandamanda
The father of my homestay family in the US made the children come down the stairs into the carport and watch him kill the family's pet goose. He felt it was part of the ritual of growing up. Is there not a parallel here?
Traditionally in Japan, unwanted pups/kittens have been put in a bag and thrown into the river. And yes, I have seen those horrible gassing videos. Hard to say which is more cruel.