考研英语阅读素材：英国为何如此重视动物福利？

今天给大家带来的内容是： 英国为何如此重视动物福利？

(本文选自《经济学人》20201219期)

背景介绍：

动物福利的提出最早可以追溯到19世纪的英国。1822年，英国国会议员 Richard Martin 在议会倡议设立草案，认为基于人类的慈善仁慈之心，应当禁止虐待马牛羊。到了20世纪，现代动物福利者遍布西方各地，动物福利的理念广为传播，许多国家对动物福利进行了立法。时至今日，英国仍是世界上动物福利制度最完备的国家之一。

Animal welfare

动物福利

Britain’s politicians can’t find enough pet-friendly laws

英国的政客们不断地寻找有关宠物福利的法律

Michael Jackson had Bubbles, a chimpanzee. Justin Bieber had OG Mally, a capuchin, until it was seized by German customs officials and put in a zoo. Rihanna has been photographed bottle-feeding a baby monkey on holiday.

迈克尔·杰克逊曾经养过一只名叫泡泡的黑猩猩。贾斯汀·比伯也曾养过一只名叫OG Mally的卷尾猴，最后被德国海关官员没收并送进了动物园。蕾哈娜曾在假期被人拍到用奶瓶喂一只小猴。

The trio of stars would find few fans in the British government, which on December 12th proposed new restrictions on keeping primates as pets. Somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 marmosets, lemurs, tamarins and other little species are kept in private ownership in Britain, the government reckons, often bored to misery.

这三位明星可能在英国政府里没什么粉丝，因为就在12月12日，英国政府推出了一项新的举措，以限制人们将灵长类动物作为宠物饲养。据英国政府估计，国内大约有1000只到5000只狨猴、狐猴、绢毛猴和其他小型灵长类动物被私人所有，这些动物常常因无聊而感到痛苦。

One of the benefits of cutting loose from the horse-eating continent is that Britain can give full rein to its passion for animals. Politicians are only too happy to oblige, for pet-friendly policies are cheap and popular.

英国脱欧后的一大好处便是可以充分表达其对动物的热情。政客们之所以乐此不疲，是因为宠物福利政策成本低廉且深受欢迎。

In last year’s election, the Tories promised to help councils reunite strays with their owners by making it mandatory to microchip cats and to tackle puppy-smuggling. (Sir Roger Gale, an MP, says bootleggers should have their cars crushed at Dover and be made to walk home.)

在去年的选举中，保守党承诺将通过强制给猫咪植入芯片和打击宠物走私犯罪来帮助地方议会，让走失的宠物能够与它们的主人团聚。(国会议员罗杰·盖尔表示，应该将多佛港宠物贩子的车砸烂，让他们走回去。)

It will end the live export of farm animals, a symbol for eurosceptics of EU inflexibility. Labour promised to ban the live-boiling of lobsters in restaurants, and to review the use of whips by racing jockeys.

这将使养殖动物活体出口在英国成为历史，这也是疑欧主义者对欧盟表示怀疑的标志。工党承诺将禁止人们在餐馆里水煮活虾，并将监督赛马骑师使用鞭子的情况。

Yet Britain’s animal-welfare laws are already among the most comprehensive in the world, according to the Animal Protection Index, a league table. The Animal Welfare Act of 2006, which imposed obligations on keepers to properly feed, house and stimulate animals, and to protect them from pain, disease and suffering, could be used to tackle monkey-keeping. The government is increasing the maximum penalty for abuse to five years in prison.

然而，根据“动物保护指数”(一份排名榜)的数据，英国已经拥有世界上最全面的动物福利法律了。2006年出台的《动物福利法》规定，动物饲养者有义务适当照料和培育动物，并保护它们免受痛苦、疾病和折磨，这项法律也适用于养猴问题。英国政府还将虐待动物的最高刑罚提高至5年有期徒刑。

MPs are moved by the traumatic loss of pets to motor accidents. James Daly, the Tory MP for the ultra-marginal seat of Bury North, has proposed “Gizmo’s Law”, named after a constituent’s cat, the victim of a hit-and-run accident, which was cremated without its owner’s knowledge.

国会议员们为在车祸中失去宠物的悲伤的人们而动容。北伯里选区边缘席位的英国保守党议员詹姆斯·戴利提出了以一位选民的猫命名的“吉兹莫法”，这只猫是一起肇事逃逸事故的受害者，它在主人不知情的情况下就被火化了。

The law would oblige councils that retrieve dead animals from the roadside to scan them for microchips, so that they can be reunited with their grieving owners rather than being anonymously incinerated. A draft bill in 2018 proposed criminalising drivers who failed to stop after striking a cat. (Hit-and-runs on dogs, pigs, goats and humans are already illegal.)

该法律规定，议会有义务对路边死去的动物进行安置，通过扫描它们身体上的微芯片，以便主人能够和它们见上最后一面，而不该在不知其身份信息的情况下直接火化。2018年的一项法律草案提议，将司机在撞到猫后不停车的行为认定为犯罪。(对狗、猪、山羊和人的肇事逃逸早已被认定为犯罪行为。)

One of the most popular proposals, judging by two petitions to Parliament which have secured more than 250,000 signatures between them, is a new offence of pet theft, which would recognise that for owners, dognapping feels more like the abduction of a child than the purloining of a television. Stealing a pet is already punishable by up to seven years in prison under the Theft Act, and judges can already account for the emotional distress when passing sentence.

从两份提交到议会、共有超过25万人签名的请愿书来看，最受欢迎的一项提案是新宠物盗窃罪，它将使人们认识到，对狗主人来说，宠物被偷走更像是孩子被绑架，而不是丢了一台电视机。根据《盗窃法》，偷窃宠物最高可被判处7年有期徒刑，并且法官在判决量刑时可以将精神伤害考虑在内。

(红色标注词为重难点词汇)

重难点词汇：

mandatory [ˈmændətɔːri] adj. 强制的;命令的

obligation [ˌɑːblɪˈɡeɪʃn] n. 义务;职责;债务

traumatic [trəˈmætɪk] adj. 令人痛苦的

cremate [ˈkriːmeɪt] vt. 火葬;烧尽

incinerate [ɪnˈsɪnəreɪt] v. 焚化;烧成灰

abduction [æbˈdʌkʃn] n. 绑架;诱导

purloin [ˈpɜːrlɔɪn] v. 偷窃