PETA: Stop Calling Your Pet A Pet!
We have all been treated to some pretty outrageous things that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has declared from on high before. Let me give you a few to remind you:
- PETA compares animal slaughter to the suffering of black people
- PETA claims that dairy products cause autism
- PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk disparages the importance of Seeing Eye dogs
Now Fox News is reporting that a PETA spokesperson Jennifer White went on a British television program called "Good Morning Britain," and attempted to explain PETA’s position on the word “pet”. She suggested it should be switched with “more inclusive” terms like “companion” and “human carer”.
Apparently the pet union had a large conference recently and decided that they no longer wanted to be called pets, they believed that word was “deanimalizing” so they elicited the help of PETA to change the moniker. Interesting that they still have not caught on that the word animal is probably a worse moniker than pet, but we are talking about dogs that eat their own or others feces, not the brightest bunch.
On the TV program Ms. White said:
A lot of people at home who have dogs or cats will call them pets and refer to themselves as owners and this implies that the animals are a possession, like a car for example…When you refer to animals not as the living beings as they are but as an inanimate object, it can reflect our treatment on these animals.
PETA believes that referring to an animal as a “pet” creates a “perception” of that animal being disposable. Again when we as humans choose to use a moniker to demean someone we often use the term “animal”. When we speak about a rapist, torturer or murderer many might call that person an animal, not a pet. So again tell me why you are more upset about calling a non-human entity a pet and not an animal?
In a statement to Fox News PETA’s founder and President Ingrid Newkirk stated:
Referring to an animal as a 'pet' or as 'it' reduces a sentient being with a personality and emotions to an inanimate object—a possession to be used in any way the 'owner' wishes. Contrary to some reports, we are not seeking to ban these words; we're simply suggesting that it would be more respectful to refer to the animals in our homes as 'animal companions' and ourselves as their 'guardians' in the same way that all social movements concerned with cultivating respect have made appeals to stop using terms that are racist or sexist or that otherwise imply that the subject is less important than the speaker
I asked my two dogs last night if they are upset or do not like us calling them pets, they stopped sniffing each other’s rear ends and said, where’s my bone, is that a treat in your hand, I want to play, rub my stomach, let me outside, SQUIRREL…I had to stop them because it would have gone on all night.
More From WBCKFM
