我要学英语Earthlings(Excerpt)

Earthlings(Excerpt)

Euthanasia, generally defined as the act of killing painlessly for reasons of mercy, is usually administered by an injection in the leg for dogs and sometimes in the stomach for cats. It is a quick and painlee procedure for the animals and by far the most humane, but not always the most affordable.

Due to the increase of euthanasia in shelters and the growing, constant demand for drugs like Euthasol, some shelters with budget constraints are forced to use gas chambers instead. In a gas chamber, animals are packed very tightly and can take as long as 20 minutes to die. It is, by far, less merciful, more traumatic and painful. But the procedure is less expensive.

Perhaps some of the tough questions we shoud ask ourselves about animals that we keep as companions are: can we keep animals as companions and still address their needs? Is our keeping companion animals in their best interest, or are we exploiting them? The answers to these questions may lie in the attitudes of the human caretakers and their abilities to provide suitable environments for companion animals.

《地球公民》（节选）

安乐死，这种普遍定义为出于仁慈而无痛杀生的行为，通常是通过在狗的腿上，有时在猫的腹部注射药物来施行。这是一种快速无痛，也是迄今为止最人道的死法，但不总是负担得起的。

由于在宠物收容所里安乐死数量的增加，以及对于像Euthasol这样的药物不断增长的需求，一些预算有限的收容所被迫使用毒气室来取代安乐死。在一个毒气室里，动物们被紧紧地塞在一起，并且可能需要长达20分钟的时间才能死去。这是到目前为止相对更残忍、更具创伤性和痛苦性的死法。但就程序而言较为便宜。

也许，关于那些我们作为伴侣的动物，我们应该叩问自己一些棘手的问题：我们把动物作为人类伴侣的同进还能设法解决它们本身的需求吗？我们拥有这些宠物，是为了它们的最大利益，还是为了利用它们？这些问题的答案可能在于人类宠物主的态度以及他们为伴侣提供合适环境的能力之中。