VOA常速英语:Public Events Highlight Importance of Animals

Hundreds of dog owners brought out their pets in London on Sunday to protest Brexit which is short for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
周日，成百上千的狗狗饲养者将宠物带上伦敦街头，抗议英国脱欧，脱欧是英国退出欧盟的简称。

The demonstration named Wooferendum is calling for another referendum on the 2016 decision which many Brits did not support and some have come to regret. There are thousands of dogs that have come to make their views known that they don’t want Brexit and they think the country needs to be given a chance democratically to reconsider. Some pet owners are worried that Brexit could result in a shortage of good vets and a financial crisis that could hurt animals as well as people. The stray dog population has grown significantly since the financial crisis in Greece a few years ago forced many owners to abandon their animals.
这份名为Wooferendum的声明旨在呼吁再一次公投，原因是许多英国人并不支持2016年的投票结果，甚至对该结果感到后悔。人们带来了成千上万只狗狗，以此来明确表达他们的观点，他们不想要英国脱欧，他们认为英国需要民主地去重新考虑这个问题。一些宠物主人担心，英国脱欧可能会导致优质兽医的紧缺，或是会产生金融危机，由此给人和动物都带来威胁。自从几年前希腊的金融危机迫使许多主人抛弃他们的宠物以来，流浪狗的数量大幅增加。

A protest Saturday in Athens called for respect for animals.Meanwhile, animal rights advocates rallied in Paris against the use of animal fur and hide in fashion.Today we can keep warm without having to kill animals.Today we’re here to say that it’s something cruel that when you take part in this massacre, which is a mass massacre,you have blood on your hands and form an environmental point of view.It also had dramatic consequences.
周六，雅典举行抗议活动，呼吁人们尊重动物。与此同时，动物权利保护者在巴黎集会，反对使用动物皮毛并将其制成时尚物品。今天我们并不需要杀死动物，剥下其皮毛取暖。在这里我们要表达的是，当你参与这场大屠杀的时候，这是一件非常残忍的事情，你的双手其实沾满了鲜血，你的行为也会对他人的环境观点产生恶劣影响，它会产生灾难性的后果。

Dogs may be man’s best friends, but in Perryville, Arkansas, a town with a population of under 1,500 has a preference for goats. Every first Saturday in October, the people of Perry will bring out their goats to the City Park for a festival that attracts goat lovers from around the country. I think they’re a better pet than a dog even. I mean my goats all greet me when I go out. They know their names. The blessing of animals is a common ritual in many countries and it’s not all about religion. It’s about ecosystems and we’ve forgotten…we’ve forgotten that,so anything we do this is a kind of a symbolic thing to get us out of just being concerned with ourselves. Manifestations in appreciation of animals are common in early October as the World Animal Day and the feast day of Francis Assisi, the patron saint of animals, are both observed on October the 4th.
狗也许是人类最好的朋友，但在美国阿肯色州佩里维尔县，有一个人口不到1500人的小镇，那里的人们却偏爱山羊。每年十月的第一个星期六，位于佩里的人们都会带着他们的山羊来到城市公园，共同庆祝一个吸引了全国各地山羊爱好者的节日。我认为羊是比狗更好的宠物，每次我出门的时候，它们都会向我打招呼，而且它们知道自己的名字。为动物祈福在许多国家是一种常见的仪式，而且并不完全与宗教有关。这事关生态系统，而我们早已经忘了这点，所以现在我们做的每一步都是一个象征性符号，提醒我们不要一直只关心自己。每年十月初都会出现动物爱好者的集会，这十分常见，因为世界动物日是在十月四日，这一天也是动物守护神意大利修道士圣·弗朗西斯的节日。

Slouttineus Hawk VOA News Washington
美国之音记者Slouttineus Hawk华盛顿报道