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Pet theories
宠物理论
Reigning cats and dogs
“统治阶级”猫猫狗狗
As pet ownership booms, a troubling question rears its head: who owns whom?
随着宠物拥有量的激增，一个令人不安的问题浮出水面：宠物和人谁是主人?
There is a range of theories about how Homo sapiens came to rule the planet. Opposable thumbs, cranial size, altruism and cooking all played a part, but central to the naked ape’s success was its ability to dominate other species. Bovids, equids and, in particular, canids, were put to work by H. sapiens; felids always took a slightly different view of the matter, but were indulged for their rodent-catching talents.
关于智人如何能成为地球的统治者产生了一系列理论。对生拇指、头颅大小、利他主义以及烹饪都是其中原因，但人类能够成功统治地球的最主要原因是支配其他物种的能力。牛科动物、马科动物，尤其是犬科动物，都是由智人分工的；猫科动物略有不同，但受宠的原因主要是捕捉啮齿类生物的天性。
As humanity has got richer, animals’ roles have changed. People need their services less than before. Fewer wolves and bandits meant less demand for dogs for protection; the internal combustion engine made horses redundant; modern sanitation kept rats in check and made cats less useful. No longer necessities, domestic animals became luxuries. Petkeeping seems to kick in en masse when household incomes rise above roughly $5,000. It is booming.
人类物资越来越丰富，动物角色也随之改变。相比之前，人类对于动物干活的需求变小了。狼和强盗减少意味着不要那么多看家狗了；内燃机的出现使得人们不再需要拉车的马了；现代卫生设施抑制住了老鼠，猫的作用也没那么大了。家畜不再是必需品，而是奢侈品。家庭收入大约超过5000美元时，养宠物似乎是一个普遍选择。宠物业正蓬勃发展。
The trend is not a new one. Archaeologists have found 10,000-year-old graves in which dogs and people are buried together. Some cultures— such as in Scandinavia, where canines have long been both working dogs and companions— have kept pets for millennia. But these days the pet-keeping urge has spread even to parts of the world which have no tradition of snuggling up on a comfy chair with a furry creature.
这种趋势并不新鲜。考古学家们发现了有10000年历史人狗合葬的坟墓。有些地方的文化几千年来一直盛行养宠物，比如斯堪的纳维亚半岛，那里的狗长期以来既是工作犬又是人类的伙伴。但如今，养宠物的潮流已经蔓延至各地，甚至是本来没有和毛茸茸的宠物窝在沙发上的传统的地方。
In parts of Asia where people used to regard the best place for man’s best friend as not the sofa but the stewing-pot, along with some onions and a pinch of seasoning, and where cats were made into tonics, norms are changing fast. The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has a rescue dog, and the mayor of Seoul has promised to shut down dog butchers. China, where dogs were once rounded up and slaughtered on the ground that keeping pets was bourgeois, has gone mad for cutesy breeds like Pomeranians, whose wolfish ancestors would have swallowed them whole for elevenses. Traditionalists attending the annual dogmeat festival in Guangxi now find themselves under attack by packs of snarling animal-lovers.
在亚洲的一些地区，人们过去认为给人类最好的朋友最好的地方不是沙发，而是炖锅，外加几片洋葱和一撮调料。以前拿猫当做滋补品的地方，规范正在改变。韩国总统文在寅养了一只搜救犬，首尔市长承诺关闭狗肉屠宰店。狗曾经被围捕和屠杀，理由是养宠物是资产阶级的行为，而现在却为博美犬这种可爱的物种陷入疯狂，而狼祖先会将这类犬当做下午茶一样吞掉。参加广西狗肉节的传统主义者现在发现自己受到了一群咆哮的动物爱好者的攻击。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
