Academic professors are suggesting that calling your domestic dogs, cats, hamsters etc 'pets' is insulting them. Instead, they should be called 'companion animals' and owners should be known as 'human carers'.
The Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted an entire issue on these animal terms. It is edited by Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. He has received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of 'God's sentient creatures'.
They feel that terms such as 'wildlife' are also insulting for the animals and they should be referred as 'free living'.
Now their stance is that such derogatory language about animals can affect the way they are treated. Thus, they feel 'pets' is definitely a derogatory term and if humans are referred to as 'pet owners', it means that the animals are merely some property or a thing to be possessed.
Not only that, the journal goes on to say that phrases such as 'sly as a fox', 'drunk as a skunk' and 'eat like a pig' are all unfair to the animals and should be removed.
Similarly, they oppose words like 'beasts' and 'critters' that are commonly associated with animals.
Well, I do understand where these professors are coming from but honestly speaking these words like human carers, companion animals and free life totally confused my mind in the beginning. They seem to be quite confusing in the first go. At the end of the day, animals will remain animals no matter how much love we give them and how humanely we treat them so I don't understand why these words sound so derogatory in the first place. They are not demeaning like calling somebody retarded or handicapped for instance.
I mean pets or pet owners or even wild life for that matter are not really harsh and demeaning words. Besides, the recommendations they have made are a bit too scientific barring free life.
It would be much better if we would practically do things to make things much better for both domestic and wild life animals rather than focus on words and there is so much room for improvement and action in this area alone.
