TEHRAN An Iranian school principal has been dismissed from her post after she drew the wrath of an animal rights group for burning alive a rat in full view of her young students.

"Today, we have a remorseful schoolmistress who lacks the good morals to continue in her job because of her evil deed and so she has been asked to resign" the head of the Education Ministry's district office said Saturday, according to IRNA.

Last Tuesday, an Iranian animal protection society filed a complaint with the Education Ministry, demanding that the particular headmistress be sacked after she burned alive a hamster in the school's playground.

"This act was surely committed in a temporary state of insanity but it concerns one of our citizens, and one must wonder what kind of hands our children have been entrusted to," the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) said.

The society also requested that state teachers be required to undergo psychological testing, the agency said.

The school principal was said to have gone into a rage when she saw the rat inside the school's premises.

It was brought by one of the teachers who intended to give it as a prize to one of her students. Unfortunately, it caught the ire of the school principal who burned it alive, ISNA said.