威爾斯美語嘉義分校

There’s a disturbing trend emerging in Taiwan and in other parts of world: A growing number of dogs are being abandoned because the owners are afraid of being infected with the rabies virus via their dogs.

不論是在台灣，或是世界各地都出現我們不樂見"棄狗潮"。寵物狗遭到棄養的數量持續攀高，因為飼主們擔心透過自己飼養的狗，而感染到狂犬病。

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Rabies is a zoonotic disease (a disease that is transmitted to humans from animals) that is caused by a virus. The disease infects domesticated and wild animals, and is spread to people through close contact with infected saliva via bites or scratches.”

根據世界衛生組織 (WHO) 的定義：狂犬病是由一種人畜互通的病毒而造成的傳染病 (意即透過動物傳染給人類的疾病)。受感染的家畜或是野生動物，可能透過抓咬等唾液接觸，將病毒傳染給人類。

The main route of rabies transmission to humans is the bite of rabid dogs.

狂犬病主要散播給人的途徑即是人類被帶有狂犬病病毒的狗咬傷。

However, having rabies vaccines for pets would provide them with basic immunity against rabies, thereby also protecting their owners.

然而，只要記得帶寵物施打狂犬病疫苗，寵物本身就會對病毒免疫，同時也能保障飼主的安全。

If people choose to desert their pets, the numbers of stray dogs and cats on the streets will increase, creating more public panic, and “Panic will not help curb rabies,” Taipei Times stated on August 4th 2013.

如果我們選擇丟棄寵物的話，將造成流浪貓的數量增加，製造更多的恐慌。 在八月四號Taipei Times的報導中指出：「恐慌本身是無法抑制狂犬病的疫情的。」