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Home Front: Culture Wars
Calling animals 'pets' is insulting, academics claim
2011-04-30
Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends "pets" because the term is insulting, leading academics claim.

Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as "companion animals" while owners should be known as "human carers", they insist.

Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned -- who should instead be known as "free-living", the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.

The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.

It is edited by the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who once received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of "God's sentient creatures".

In its first editorial, the journal -- jointly published by Prof Linzey's centre and the University of Illinois in the US -- condemns the use of terms such as "critters" and "beasts".
Posted by:tipper

#8  My pet cat is Named Pet (short for Petra). She does not mind to be called as such as there is an understanding that whenever I call her, it s almost as if I were saying food's ready. She agrees to be domesticated as long as that excludes masticated. She is free-living (comes and goes as she pleases), but sometime a bit wild, and at other times a bitch. She is usually a cuddly critter, but there were times when she's a beast.

Regarding animal rights, she accepts that the mice have a right to be cornered and frightened to such a degree that their hearts pump blood with such a force that they jump off the floor by the sheer action of the pulse. She thinks the birds' feathers are unsightly and considers that birds have a right to be defeathered. Whether they are recycled or not depends on her mood. Squirrels have a right to be positioned on the doormat neatly, with their heads and tails. It is uncertain what happens to the body.
Posted by: twobyfour   2011-04-30 23:32  

#7  "who once received an honorary degree from the Archdruidbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of 'God's sentient creatures'"

That says it all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-30 19:40  

#6  "the cow"

PIMF :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-30 19:39  

#5  Insulting to who? I am certain the animals don't care what they are called (as long as it is not 'late for dinner'.)
Posted by: Glenmore   2011-04-30 19:38  

#4  "Personally, I would vote for "hamburger on the hoof", but Andrew Linzey would find that insulting (to the cow)."

We understood you meant "hamburger on the hoof" to refer to he cow, Rambler.

It's obvious Mr. Linzey would be too dry and stringy to make good hamburger. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-30 19:37  

#3  So what should we call cows that are raised for food? They're not pets, except in rare cases.

Personally, I would vote for "hamburger on the hoof", but Andrew Linzey would find that insulting (to the cow).
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2011-04-30 19:21  

#2  Ima thinkrn Andrew likes to dress up in a leash and collar on weekends and be disciplined by his "master"
Posted by: Frank G   2011-04-30 19:13  

#1  Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who once received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury

Nobel prize candidate, fershure.
Posted by: Pappy   2011-04-30 18:00  

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