The Taoyuan City Government yesterday said it plans to send animal welfare officials to a junior college after a video on social media appeared to show one of its teachers using a live ferret to clean a chalkboard.
In an Instagram Reel posted on Friday, a student at Taoyuan’s Hsin Sheng Junior College of Medical Care and Management, posted a one-second video clip of what appeared to be a teacher using a squirming white ferret to wipe chalk off a chalkboard.
The clip, captioned “freshman life on campus,” was posted to a public Instagram account operated by the school, but later deleted following allegations of animal abuse.
Photo courtesy of a reader
In a statement, the school said that while it has yet to speak with the part-time teacher seen in the video, it was “unlikely” the ferret was being mistreated, since its owner and many other students were in the room.
School administrators would nevertheless look into the issue, and also remind students and teachers that pets cannot be brought to class and should be treated with care, the school said.
Meanwhile, Taoyuan Animal Welfare Office Commissioner Wang Te-chi (王得吉) said the office plans to send officials to the school to speak with the teacher and inquire about the ferret’s well-being today.
Under Taiwan’s Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), a pet owner has a legal responsibility to protect their pet from harassment, abuse and injury, Wang added.
If an animal is illegally harmed resulting in its death, the person responsible can face up to two years in prison and a fine ranging from NT$200,000 to NT$2 million (US$6,044 to US$60,444), he said.
Asked to confirm details about the video, Wang said that according to the school, the ferret’s owner brought the animal to class and had let the teacher, a part- time math instructor, hold it.
The video was posted to the Instagram account for the school’s nursing program, he said.
According to the school, the ferret’s owner recorded the video, and although the teacher appears to have acted improperly, it could just be an issue of the angle at which the recording was taken, Wang said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a