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hu

Upper-intermediate (B2)

Focus: Reading (BME exam preparation)

Feed the beasts

Read the text below and answer the questions in English. Apart from technical terms, you should use
your own words and only include information from the text.

Feed the beasts

Christmas is almost here. For schools with pets, elaborate networks of parents, teachers, caretakers
and pupils are rallying round to ensure that massed ranks of hamsters, guinea pigs, fish and other
classroom creatures receive the care they need to survive through to next year.

Not in Aberdeen, though, where the city council outlawed animals in its schools four years ago. There,
the attitude remains that the benefits for children of an animal presence are outweighed by the onerous
responsibilities pets place on schools. The policy is also a stand against the caging of living things and
underlines the idea that learning should never occur at the expense of other creatures.

Aberdeen’s position is consistent with the RSPCA’s line, which frowns on the keeping of any animal in
captivity. According to Rob Eager, the charity’s national education adviser, “the principles of respect
and responsibility can be put across very effectively without using real animals.” Reflecting this, the
organisation’s school liaison officers rely on cuddly toys, videos and interactive computer programmes
to communicate their welfare messages.

This purist approach is bad news for children who participated in Guardian Education’s “The School I’d
Like” competition. Access to animals came high on pupils’ wish lists. They have an ally in the Society
for Companion Animal Studies (Scas), a charity that champions children’s interaction with real animals
as a crucial element of “humane education”, which focuses on developing their compassion and
practical caring skills.

Many schools give animals better care than they receive in the community, says Scas. According to
Scas chairwoman Mary Whytham, keeping animals helps to teach children “that animals are not to be
abused but require love, cherishing and respect.”
In pursuit of this, Scas has published a teachers’ guide. “Some animals are far better suited to schools
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than others,” says Scas deputy chair and vet Elizabeth Ormerod. “Hamsters are not very sociable and
guinea pigs are easily alarmed. Gerbils are a good choice because they are active in daylight. Rabbits
must have outside runs and dogs need quiet places to rest during the day.” In keeping with all involved
in animal welfare, Ormerod takes a dim view of schools or teachers who encourage the keeping of
exotic species.

“Time must be spent habituating animals to a school environment, or they can lead miserable lives,”
says Steve Blakeway, of Vetwork UK, a Scottish animal welfare charity. “Schools must ensure that pets
are free from stress - this is particularly important for prey animals such as gerbils, which will
experience rampaging children as a mass of large predators.”

At Collenswood school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, membership of the animal club has become a
crucial tool in integrating children from its feeder primaries. “We have a 20-year history of on-site animal
keeping,” explains headteacher Steve Welding. “Caring for our assortment of farm and domestic
animals is a key social activity for year 7s at lunchtime.”

1. What is it that everybody is crazy about before Christmas?

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2. What reasons are behind the city council’s ban on animals in schools in Aberdeen?
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. What does Rob Eager say about schools and animals?
_________________________________________________________________________________
4. Why is this bad news for the children and how was it found out?
_________________________________________________________________________________
5. Who shares the opinion of the children and why are they of the same opinion?
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. What can animals teach children in schools?
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. According to Omerod, why shouldn’t certain animals be kept in schools?
_________________________________________________________________________________
8. What are the most important factors when keeping an animal in a school?
_________________________________________________________________________________
9. What is dangerous for gerbils and why?
_________________________________________________________________________________
10. What is happening at Collenswood school?
_________________________________________________________________________________
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Key:
1. People are trying to give as much as attention and love to animals in schools as possible.
2. The city council believes that the responsibility and danger in keeping animals in schools is bigger
than the good effect that it has on children.
3. He says that children can learn to be responsible with animals without using real ones in schools.
4. This is bad news for children because they would like to have animals in schools. This turned out in
a competition in which they were asked about the ideal school.
5. It is the Society for Companion Animal Studies and they think that children need to be together with
animals in order to learn how to behave in a humane way with them.
6. Children can learn that they should not hurt but love and respect animals.
7. Because these animals might be unsociable, frightened, too exotic.
8. The animals should be provided a stress-free life and care.
9. If there are angry children around them because gerbils see the children as large predators.
10. The school keeps farm and domestic animals, which the children feed during lunchtime as a very
important social activity.