美国国家公共电台 NPR French Butchers Ask For Protection After Threats From Militant Vegans

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Butchers in France say they are under threat from so-called militant¹ vegans, and they've asked the French government for protection. Butchers say what's at stake is not just the right to eat meat but a way of life. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley has the story.

(CROSSTALK)

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE²: Didier and Sandrine Tasse have run their butcher shop on this busy street in Paris for 19 years. They know all their customers and discuss growing children and family vacations. The Tasses say it's a great livelihood³, but these days, the butcher and his wife are nervous about threats from militant vegans.

DIDIER TASSE: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: The couple say, "if people don't want to eat meat, that's their right, but imposing⁴ their beliefs on others isn't. Imagine working 20 years building a business," they say, "and then someone comes and damages your shop." In recent months, hard-line vegans have thrown fake blood on butcher shops and scrawled⁵ abusive graffiti. They've broken windows. Jean-Francois Guihard is president of the French Confederation of Butchers. He appealed to the interior minister to do something about the incidents in a letter last month. Guihard says the country's 18,000 small butchers are the backbone⁶ of the French economy and more.

JEAN-FRANCOIS GUIHARD: (Through interpreter) In France, you go to your butcher like you go to your doctor. It's personal. And the heart of any French village or town is the baker⁷, the butcher, the cafe. If we don't have these small businesses, the social fabric⁸ will be gone. Amazon is nice, but it isn't everything.

BEARDSLEY: Brigitte Gothiere with L214, a vegan association that defends animal rights. Gothiere says her group would never perpetrate violence because that's exactly what it's campaigning against.

BRIGITTE GOTHIERE: (Through interpreter) We put hidden cameras in slaughterhouses and document things like baby chicks being ground up and other cruelties. We try to show the reality of how animals live and die while being raised, transported and slaughtered⁹.

BEARDSLEY: Gothiere says while it might be tough to convince the French to give up meat, people are concerned with animal welfare. She says her organization has convinced major egg companies to stop caging their birds. And last month, thanks to one of L214's clandestine¹⁰ videos, a slaughterhouse was sanctioned by a court, and one employee was fired.

TASSE: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: Back in Tasse's butcher shop, 48-year-old Didier Tasse wheels out half a cow carcass hanging on a hook from his freezer. He slices different cuts of steak from it every day. The cow is a Blonde d'Aquitaine, a breed from southwestern France. It has papers that show when and where it was born, raised, slaughtered and that list its vaccines¹¹. Tasse says French butchers work hard to do their best by their customers and animals.

FREDERIQUE MAGLIONE: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: Customer Frederique Maglione calls vegans who attack butchers terrorists.

MAGLIONE: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: But Maglione acknowledges problems in slaughterhouses and says that's why she buys meat only from the butcher, never the supermarket. She says mass industrial production is the problem and thinks most French people are ready to pay more for their meat and eat less of it if that means better treatment of animals. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAKUYA KURODA'S "RISING SUN")

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

4 imposing   

adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的

参考例句：

• The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
• He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。

5 scrawled   

乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。
• Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字：“请你收下吧，我多得是哩。”

6 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

7 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

8 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

9 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 clandestine   

adj.秘密的，暗中从事的

参考例句：

• She is the director of clandestine operations of the CIA.她是中央情报局秘密行动的负责人。
• The early Christians held clandestine meetings in caves.早期的基督徒在洞穴中秘密聚会。

11 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。