Care for a Chihuahua with a blue hue

想要來隻藍色吉娃娃嗎？

Or how about a teacup poodle so tiny it will fit into a purse — the canine equivalent of a bonsai

還是要一隻茶杯貴賓犬，小巧玲瓏，可以放到手提包裡，相當於盆栽版的狗狗？

The Japanese sure do.

日本人倒是樂此不疲。

Rare dogs are highly prized in Tokyo, and can set buyers back more than $10,000. But the real problem is what often arrives in the same litter: genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose.

在東京，愈稀有的狗，身價愈貴，一隻往往上看一萬美元，使買主裹足不前。但真正的問題往往出現在同一窩小狗中：有基因缺陷的小狗狗兄弟姊妹，一出生就沒有爪子，或臉上少了眼鼻。

There have been dogs with brain disorders so severe that they spent all day running in circles, and others with bones so frail they dissolved in their bodies. Many carry hidden diseases that crop up years later, veterinarians and breeders say.

曾有些狗腦部嚴重異常，牠們往往成天繞著圈子打轉，還有些狗骨骼太脆弱，竟在體內分解。獸醫和養狗的人說，另有很多狗有隱性疾病，多年後才冒出來。

Kiyomi Miyauchi was heartbroken to discover this after one of two Boston terriers she bought years ago suddenly collapsed last year into spasms on the living room floor and died. In March, one of its puppies died the same way; another went blind.

望月知美（譯音）多年前買的兩隻波士頓 犬，有一隻去年突然在客廳地板上痙攣抽搐後癱瘓死亡，她心都碎了。去年三月，它生的小狗也出現同樣的病症後死亡，另一隻狗則瞎了。

Ms. Miyauchi stumbled across a widespread problem in Tokyo that is only starting to get attention. Rampant inbreeding has given Japanese dogs some of the highest rates of genetic defects in the world, sometimes four times higher than in the United States and Europe.

知美在東京碰到一個正開始引起關注的廣泛問題。近親交配問題浮濫失控，使日本狗狗基因缺陷率，有些竟高居世界之冠，有時甚至比美國和歐洲要高四倍。

These illnesses are the tragic consequences of the national penchant in Japan for turning things cute and cuddly into social status symbols. But they also reflect the fondness for piling onto fads in Japan, a nation that always seems caught in the grip of some trend or other.

日本人生性酷好把可愛和討人喜歡的東西變成社會地位象徵，這些疾病便是悲劇性的後遺症。但他們也反映日本一窩蜂趕流行的風潮，這個民族往往不是流行這個就是那個。

The affection for fads in Japan reflects its group-oriented culture, a product of the conformity taught in its grueling education system. But booms also take off because they are fueled by big business. Companies like Sony and Nintendo are constantly looking to create the next adorable hit, churning out cute new characters and devices. Booms help sustain an entire industrial complex, from software makers to marketers and distributors, that thrives off the pack mentality of consumers in Japan.

日本超愛趕流行，反映其集體意識文化，這也是其嚴峻教育體制下要求一致性的產物，但流行風猛吹，也因為大企業推波助瀾，像新力及任天堂等企業，經常絞盡腦汁想打造下一個可愛的熱門商品，源源不斷推出可愛的新公仔和玩意。紅火商品幫助整個工業界，從軟體製造商到市場行銷人員到批發商，他們全靠日本消費者集體心態撈錢。

The same thing is happening in Japan's fast-growing pet industry, estimated at more than $10 billion a year. Chihuahuas are the current hot breed, after one starred in the television ads of a finance company. In the early 1990s, a TV drama featuring a Siberian husky helped send annual sales rocketing from just a few hundred dogs to 60,000; sales fell when the fad cooled, according to the Japan Kennel Club.The breed took off despite being inappropriately large for cramped homes in Japan.

同樣的情形也發生在日本快速成長的寵物界，估計每年超過100億美元。在一隻吉娃娃在電視廣告中為一家理財公司打廣告後，吉娃娃立刻成為新寵。日本畜犬聯盟J.K.C.指出，1990年代初，一隻西伯利亞哈士奇犬演出電視劇後，使哈士奇從每年賣幾百隻，一下狂飆到六萬隻。這種狗雖然體型過大，日本住家極小，仍十分搶手。

Some veterinarians and other experts cite another, less obvious factor behind widespread risky inbreeding in Japan's dog industry — the nation's declining birthrate.

日本狗界鋌而走險近親交配浮濫，有些獸醫和其他專家點出另一個較不明顯的因素：日本生育率不斷下降。

As the number of childless women and couples in Japan has increased, so has the number of dogs, which are being coddled and doted upon in place of children, experts say. In the last decade, the number of pet dogs in Japan has doubled to 13 million last year — outnumbering children under 12 .

專家說，隨著日本沒有子女的女人和夫婦增加，狗的數目跟著增加。這些狗取代子女，得到悉心照料和寵愛。過去十年間，日本寵物狗的數目倍增到去年的1300萬隻，比12歲以下的孩童還多。

Indeed, many of these buyers want dogs they can show off like proud parents. They are willing to pay top yen, with rarer dogs fetching higher prices. Coveted traits like a blue-tinged coat are often the result of recessive genes, which can determine appearance only when combined with another recessive gene.

的確，很多買家希望能像驕傲的父母炫耀他們的愛犬，他們不惜砸重金，狗愈罕見，價碼愈高。大家渴求的特色，像藍色皮毛，往往是隱性基因造成的，而唯有和另一個隱性基因結合才可能決定長相。

Inbreeding is a quick way to bring out recessive traits, as dogs carrying the gene are repeatedly mated with their own offspring, enhancing the trait over successive generations.

近親交配則可快速取得隱性特色，當帶有這種基因的狗反覆和牠們的子女交配時，未來的世代這種特色會更加凸顯。

Hirofumi Sasaki, a pet store owner in Hiroshima, has seen so many defective dogs that last year he converted an old bar into a hospice to care for them. So far he has taken in 32 dogs, though only 12 have survived.

日本廣島一家寵物店老闆佐佐木博文（譯音）去年眼見這麼多基因缺陷狗，決定把一家老酒吧改裝成安寧療養院，專門照顧狗，目前他已經收容了32隻狗，但只有12隻倖存。

One is Keika, a deaf 1-year-old female dachshund with eyes that wander aimlessly. Her breeder was originally selling her for about $7,500 because she is half-white, a rare trait in dachshunds.

其中一隻是一歲多的母狗Keika，她是隻耳聾的臘腸犬，眼睛常漫無目的的張望，她的飼主原本要賣她，叫價約7,500美元，因為她的毛皮有一半是白色的，這在臘腸犬中是很罕見的特色。

"That is an unnatural color, like a person with blue skin," Mr. Sasaki said.

「那是很不自然的顏色，就像一個人皮膚是藍色的，」博文說。

The breeder told Mr. Sasaki that he had bred a dog with three generations of offspring — in human terms, first with its daughter, then a granddaughter and then a great-granddaughter — until Keika was born. The other four puppies in the litter were so hideously deformed that they were killed right after birth.

飼主告訴博文，他用一隻狗和他所生的三代母犬交配繁殖。換成人，就是先和他女兒，再和他孫女，再和曾孫女交配，直到Keika出生為止，這一窩出生的小狗，另外四隻因嚴重畸形，一出生就死了。

The government concedes that oversight is poor, and passed a law in June to revoke the licenses of breeders who use dogs with genetic defects for breeding. But the Environment Ministry, which has jurisdiction over pets, says it has just four officials to monitor all of 25,000 pet shops, kennels and breeders in Japan.

日本政府承認監督不周，並在去年六月通過一項法律，吊銷用有基因缺陷的狗繁殖的養殖業者的執照，但主管寵物的環境省說，該省只有四名官員，要監督日本總共25,000家寵物店、養狗場和養殖業者。

Ultimately, animal care professionals say, the solution is educating not just breeders but potential dog owners.

動物照護專家說，追根究柢，解決之道不只要教育養殖業者，還要教育可能的狗主人。

（摘譯自紐約時報）

《詞解》
 Inbred 　近親交配
Chihuahua　吉娃娃
poodle 貴賓犬
canine　犬類
bonsai 盆栽
litter　一窩小狗
paws 爪子
dissolve　分解
hidden diseases 隱性疾病
genetically defective 基因缺陷
fads, booms, rage 風靡一時的事物
veterinarians 獸醫
spasms 痙攣抽搐
rampant 浮濫失控　
cuddly 討人喜歡
grueling 嚴峻
coddle　悉心照料
dote upon 寵愛
recessive genes　隱性基因