VOA慢速英语--同类相食!巴西猫岛因新冠疫情沦为“猫间炼狱”

All the local people knew Furtada Island was full of cats.

People left food for the cats and even brought tourists. Then the coronavirus crisis¹ hit, and human support for the animals stopped. That is when fishermen witnessed something very sad: a group of cats eating dead cats.

Furtada Island is widely known as "Island of the Cats." It is just west of Rio de Janeiro and 20 minutes by motorboat from the city of Mangaratiba. It sits on one side of Brazil's Green Coast, an area known for its mountainous forests and hundreds of small islands.

Over the years, fishermen threw unwanted pieces of fish and unneeded catch onto the island to feed the cats. Other people left containers filled with water and store-bought cat food. That has helped the hundreds of animals stay fed.

Some of the cats on Furtada Island are new arrivals. They lack the skills of their wild-born relatives, which climb trees to raid² birds' homes.

When the pandemic forced people to stay at home, tourism slowed and restaurants that serve seafood³ closed. Boat traffic around the island fell sharply⁴ — and with it, the cats' food and water supply.

Locals did not realize the situation on the island until the fishermen reported back in April.

"The number of boats fell, the number of tourists, and we saw the condition of those animals on the island," said 58-year-old Jorge de Morais. He works with a local group that rescues animals from abuse. So, we went to work, he said.

He and other volunteers asked local businesses for donations. In April, they started putting simple food and water dispensers on the island. The dispensers were made from plastic pipes.

Now, volunteers make weekly trips to add food and water to the machines.

Recently, de Morais and three others returned to the island, where thick plant life spills down to meet a rocky coast.

"Cats that are recently discarded, they're more sociable," said Joice Puchalski, the organizer of the group. You saw we can get close and touch them, she said. But not the wild ones. They all are hidden. "You see them at night, because of their eyes," she said.

The population of nearly 250 cats can be traced back to a man and woman who lived on the island around 20 years ago, Puchalski said. They left and did not take their two cats. So those animals did what most creatures, when left alone, would do. They had babies. As the cat population grew, people took notice. And some saw it as a place to leave unwanted cats from the city.

Brazilian officials are exploring ways to prevent people from leaving animals on the island. It is already a crime, but signs noting that have had little effect.

Karla de Lucas is responsible for animal protection in Rio state. She inspected the Island of the Cats in June. And she met with the Navy and environmental officials to explore punishments, a statement said. Last month, Brazil's Congress passed a law increasing the punishment for abuse of cats and dogs. Those arrested for the crime can serve up to five years in prison.

There are no freshwater springs on the island and limited drinking water causes kidney⁵ problems for the cats, Puchalski said. But the biggest problem is bites from poisonous snakes. Another animal, a kind of lizard⁶, will also attack and hurt young cats. And some cats are injured when boatmen throw them onto the rocks.

The volunteers bring cats to the mainland, as needed, for medical treatment. They try to find someone to adopt each animal. If that does not happen, they bring it back to the island so they can help others requiring medical attention.

It is a job that is never finished, Puchalski said.

"We really need someone who can join forces with us to try to heal this criminality that, for us, is cruelty," she said.

Words in This Story

tourist – n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

pandemic – n. an occurrence⁷ in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people over a wide area or throughout the world

dispenser – n. a machine or container that lets you take small amounts of something

discard – v. to throw something away because it is useless or unwanted

trace – v. to follow something back to its cause, beginning, or origin

kidney – n. either of two organs in your body that remove waste products from your blood and make urine

snake – n. an animal that has a long, thin body and no arms or legs

adopt – v. to take a child (or animal) legally as your own child

1 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

2 raid   

v.劫掠，攫取，袭击，突击搜捕；n.突然袭击

参考例句：

• Our house was blown up in an air raid.在一次空袭中我们的房子被炸掉了。
• During their raid on the house,the police found a lot of drugs.在对这所房子的搜查中，警方发现了大量的毒品。

3 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

4 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

5 kidney   

n.肾，腰子，类型

参考例句：

• Several of the patients had received kidney transplant.病人中有几位已接受了肾移植手术。
• The operation to transplant a kidney is now fairly routine.肾脏移植手术如今已相当常见。

6 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

7 occurrence   

n.发生，出现，事件，发生的事件

参考例句：

• Two things account for its occurrence.发生这件事的原因有两个。
• For a military commander，winning or losing a battle is a common occurrence.胜败乃兵家常事。