A teacher in Taiwan has faced backlash for repeatedly dropping his pet cat on the floor to teach his students physics during class.
Lee Feng was recorded by one of his students dropping his cat Laifu onto the hard floor over and over again to demonstrate the physics principle of conservation of angular momentum. The principle says it’s impossible for an object to not spin without any external forces.
However, cats defy this and land on their feet without coming into contact with any external forces – say a wall – to spin.
The teacher was attempting to show cats have a natural balancing system so they can always orient themselves in the right way to land safely. Cats have flexible spines, so they twist and bend their bodies mid-air when needed.
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The video recorded by a student was posted on Facebook on March 5. It showed Mr Feng holding the cat upside down, grabbing its leg, and letting it fall.
He says in the clip: “It is fine to do this with a cat but we cannot do it with a dog.”
The cat hisses as it hits the ground.
The video went viral and many users slammed the teacher for setting a bad example for his students and the insensitive demonstration.
One user said: “Shouldn’t being a teacher teach children to love and respect life? This was such a bad demonstration.”
The educator has since apologized and says he took his pet to the vet for a checkup afterward.
He wrote on Facebook: “As the owner of Laifu, I ignored the physical and mental harm to it brought by the experiment. As a teacher, I behaved controversially without considering that it would have a potential negative impact on my students and others.”
Mr Feng added he adopted the cat from a charity and says he sleeps with him on the bed, in an attempt to show he cares for and loves his pet.
The teacher said he donated $1566 to the Taiwan Homeless Animal Rescue Association after his class.
“I will buy you the best feline food to show how sorry I am,” he said referring to Laifu.
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