☆旅居於窮鄉僻壤在歐洲☆

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這 聽起來很像一部恐怖電影：把狂犬病病毒打進小米格魯體內，然後讓他們屈服於病魔的折磨與吞噬．這不是虛構，而是一個真實又即將就要被進行的殘忍實驗．台灣 農委會想要測試新種狂犬病會不會從鼬獾傳染到狗．他們打算把狂犬病病毒打進至少14小米格魯體內，而且認為世界不會注意到他們這個過份的實驗．
It sounds like a scene from a horror movie: injecting rabies into beagle puppies and watching as they succumb to one of the most miserable of diseases. This isn't fiction. It's a cruel experiment that is real and imminent. The Taiwanese Council of Agriculture wants to test whether a new strain of rabies will spread from ferret-badgers to dogs. It aims to inject rabies into at least 14 puppies, and it is hoping that the world will turn a blind eye to this awful experiment.

大家早就知道狂犬病病毒可以感染溫血動物了．責任醫師協會已經努力阻止這個實驗，指出我們應該要認為狗會被病毒感染，並儘快進行防疫的步驟．這個實驗並沒有辦法證明什麼．
It is already well-known that rabies can infect warm-blooded animals. The Physicians Committee has come out four-square against the experiments, saying that we should accept as a given that dogs can acquire rabies. The new tests will prove nothing.

但是，台灣當局仍然計劃要進行活體實驗．一旦發病，這些狗狗就會經歷抽蓄與掙扎翻滾，然後漸漸變成痲痹，最後死亡．
Still, the Taiwan experimenters plan to proceed. Already knowing that the infected beagle puppies will succumb to rabies, the experimenters will stand by as the puppies begin to twitch and writhe, eventually becoming paralyzed and ultimately die.

讓狗狗經歷這些折磨並不會真的對防疫有所幫助．事實上，全球在過去整整20年內所發表的340篇狂犬並研究報告中，只有兩篇有狗．這根本不是正當的科學．
But putting beagles through this agony will not shed new light on the virus. In fact, in the last 20 years, just two of 340 papers published on rabies even mentioned infecting dogs to test a vaccine. This is not good science.

反之，有很多篇研究報告是先幫狗狗打狂犬病疫苗，然後用人道的方法取得血液樣本，來檢視這些動物們有沒有對病毒產生抗體．這是農委會應該做的，而不是讓小米格魯死於狂犬病．
On the other hand, there are many papers that first vaccinated dogs for rabies and then used a humanely-obtained blood sample from those animals to test whether they'd developed protective antibodies to the virus. It's what the COA should do to prevent the beagle puppies from dying a gruesome death from rabies.

預防是阻止狂犬病擴散極重要的一環．狂犬病專家認為，讓家中寵物跟野生動物都接種疫苗，是最好的防疫方式．野生動物口服疫苗在歐洲跟美國都行之已久．
An ounce of prevention is also crucial in preventing rabies outbreaks. Rabies experts agree that vaccinating not only domestic animals--but wildlife, too--is the best way to prevent the spread of rabies. Oral vaccination of wildlife has been successful for decades in Europe and the United States.

九月二十八號是世界狂犬病日．如果台灣政府真的想要避免這公共衛生浩劫，他們應該開始極力全面施打疫苗，並致力在世界狂犬病日之前，讓所有台灣民眾的寵物和流浪動物都受到疫苗的保護。
World Rabies Day is Sept. 28. If the Taiwanese government truly wants to avert a public health crisis, it should begin an aggressive rabies vaccination campaign and ask all citizens of Taiwan to vaccinate their dogs and other animals by World Rabies Day.

作者：尼爾‧巴納德醫師

文章來源：http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neal-barnard-md/beagle-puppies-rabies_b_3844816.html
Neal Barnard, M.D.

President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine