Instead, the group says, dog owners should call themselves dog ‘guardians,’ and pets should be referred to as ‘companion animals’
Leading animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has a problem with the word “pet,” and wants you to stop using it.
Instead, the group says, dog owners should call themselves dog “guardians,” and pets should be referred to as “companion animals” — because how we describe our animals dictates how we treat them.
On Tuesday, Jennifer White of PETA went on leading U.K. television show Good Morning Britain, and in a combative segment with hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, urged people to think of alternatives, the Independent reports.
One of the main problems with the word “pet,” she said, is that it is patronizing to animals.
“A lot of people at home who have dogs or cats will call these animals pets and refer to themselves as owners and this implies that the animals are a possession, like a car for example,” she said, as Morgan spoke over her, saying “Oh for God’s sake!”
“When you refer to animals not as the living beings that they are but as an inanimate object, it can reflect our treatment on these animals,” she continued. “Animals are their own individual beings.”
The full clip can be seen below: