美国国家公共电台 NPR Boom In Antler Pet Chews May Have Opened A Black Market

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

At fancy pet stores across the country, pieces of antlers and horns are flying off the shelves. And they are sold as a healthy, all-natural chew toy for dogs. But as Alaska Public Media's Zachariah Hughes reports, some hunters say the demand for the snacks have created a black market.

ZACHARIAH HUGHES, BYLINE¹: At a Washington, D.C., pet store called Howl to the Chief, clerk Vincent Ford² extols³ the benefits of antler. It's got healthy minerals, lasts a long time and is particularly good for canine⁴ oral health.

VINCENT FORD: It takes off their plaque⁵ and tartar by them chewing on it, so this is a good treat for that, too.

HUGHES: Antler is just one of the popular chew products sold to pet owners, a growing share of the booming multibillion-dollar pet supply industry. Online for $15, pet supply companies sell 6-inch chunks⁶ of what they call organic elk⁷ antler, marketed as naturally shed like someone just found them all in the woods. But for a few years, hunters have suspected that at least some of these antlers got on the shelves another way.

JEFF YOUNG: I mean, you know, it's - it sucks getting stuff stolen from you, you know? I mean, it doesn't matter what it is.

HUGHES: Jeff Young is a hunter living in Anchorage. And last summer, two racks of moose antlers he'd mounted way up high on his garage got literally⁸ ripped off.

YOUNG: I think they just hung on them. You know, they were up on this 6-foot ladder as far as they could get and then just pulled them down.

HUGHES: After it happened, Young tried tracking down his antlers. The larger rack had some sentimental⁹ value. It came from his first moose. But to no avail. It wasn't until later that he started hearing other hunters gripe about cherished piles of antlers snatched from lawns and sheds.

YOUNG: Another guy was like, yeah, I always threw them on the roof. You know, come home one day - all gone. So I just started hearing more stories about guy's antlers getting stolen.

HUGHES: Police can't definitively¹⁰ say whether or not antler theft is on the rise. Anecdotally, hunters and horn merchants believe thefts are being carried out by low-level criminals trying to make a fast buck¹¹, unloading antlers that are eventually sold to larger pet supply companies in a loosely regulated market. There are no federal or state officials in charge of enforcement over these kinds of pet products, so it often falls on individual merchants to determine if a moose or caribou¹² antler was legally obtained.

GUS GILLESPIE: You know, you kind of get a feel for it.

HUGHES: Gus Gillespie got into the horn and hide trade several decades ago and says he can size up a legitimate¹³ seller.

GILLESPIE: If a guy comes in, and he looks like a hunter, and he talks like a hunter, then you get a pretty good feel for it.

HUGHES: Along with his wife, Gillespie runs the Alaska Fur Exchange. In the four or five years since antler chews got popular with customers, it's been good for their business. But to keep everything legit, he's also got to turn away a lot of sales. If Gillespie suspects someone's drunk, high or in withdrawal¹⁴, he might tell them to come back in a few hours. Sometimes, he'll even pull their license¹⁵ plate number from his security camera and give it to police.

GILLESPIE: We have been instrumental in a lot of people getting caught.

HUGHES: But anyone he turns away can just go to Craigslist, where every day in Alaska, plenty of people promise in all caps to pay cash for antlers by the pound. And once they're sawed down into small chunks, sold over the counter nobody can really say whether they were stolen or not. For NPR News, I'm Zachariah Hughes in Anchorage.

1 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。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 extols   

v.赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone extols his noble qualities. 人人称颂他的崇高品德。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Dance Art is an art in which sentiment enlightens genuineness, extols benevolence, and arouses beauty. 舞蹈艺术是以情启真、以情扬善、以情唤美的艺术。 来自互联网

4 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

5 plaque   

n.饰板，匾，(医)血小板

参考例句：

• There is a commemorative plaque to the artist in the village hall.村公所里有一块纪念该艺术家的牌匾。
• Some Latin words were engraved on the plaque. 牌匾上刻着些拉丁文。

6 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

7 elk   

n.麋鹿

参考例句：

• I was close enough to the elk to hear its labored breathing.我离那头麋鹿非常近，能听见它吃力的呼吸声。
• The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world.这座庇护所有着世界上数量最大的冬季麋鹿群。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

10 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

11 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

12 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

13 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

14 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

15 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。