《中英對照讀新聞》British guard dog savages rare German teddy 英國警犬猛咬珍貴的德國泰迪熊

◎魏國金

A British guard dog deployed to protect an exhibition of precious teddy bears had onlookers tremble with fear when he destroyed the toy animals in a sudden and unprovoked attack.

一頭配置來保護珍貴的泰迪熊展的英國警犬，在突然沒來由的攻擊行動中摧毀這些玩具熊，讓旁觀的民眾嚇得發抖。

Reports said a rare Steiff bear, which used to belong to Elvis Presley, was among the "victims" attacked by Doberman Barney at the exhibition in Wookey Hole Caves.

報導說，一個曾屬於貓王艾維斯．普里斯萊的珍貴史泰夫熊，也在伍基岩洞的展覽上成為杜賓犬巴尼攻擊的「受害者」。

The teddy, named Mabel and estimated at 40,000 pounds, was made in Germany in 1909 and bought at auction in Memphis,Tennessee, by a British collector.

這隻名叫梅寶的泰迪熊，身價估計達4萬英鎊（台幣247萬餘元），是1909年在德國製造，並在美國田納西州曼菲斯的拍賣會上，被一名英國收藏者買下。

"About 100 bears were caught up in this frenzied attack, some were merely little chews, whereas some of them had some quite devastating injuries," exhibition manager Daniel Medley said.

展覽經理丹尼爾．梅德雷說︰「大約100隻玩具熊在這場瘋狂的攻擊中落難，有些僅遭小囓咬，有些則受到相當毀滅性的傷害。」

"Heads pulled off, arms, legs here and there, it was a total carnage really. I've never seen such a mess, there was stuffing,fluff and bear bits everywhere," said Medley.

「（玩具熊的）頭被扯下、手、腿四處散佈，實在是一場全面殺戮，我從未見過如此混亂的場面，到處都是填充物、絨毛與玩具熊殘塊，」梅德雷說。

Security guard Greg West, who was on duty at the time, is at a loss to explain what happened to make Barney go so "berserk".

當時執勤的警衛葛雷格．威斯特也對巴尼如此「抓狂」的原因困惑不解。

"Barney has been a model guard dog for over six years. I still can’t believe what happened," he said.

「巴尼成為模範警犬已逾6年，對於所發生的事，我仍無法置信，」他說。

新聞辭典

savage：形容詞，猛烈的、原始野蠻的、粗魯的。在此當動詞，指（狗等動物）亂咬、兇猛的攻擊。

unprovoked：無故的、未受到挑釁的。a unprovoked attack，無故攻擊。

here and there：四處、各處。neither here nor there則指離題的、不重要的。例句︰What she says is neither here nor there.（她說的話不重要。）

at a loss：迷惑茫然、不知所措。例句︰He was at a loss for words.（他啞口無言。）