Do you know why it will someday be impossible to live in a politically correct world? Anytime you open your mouth, it is likely you will offend someone - or, in this case, something. Thus, communication will cease and we will all die of starvation.
The Telegraph:
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".
I don't know about you, but when was the last time your dog was "insulted" when you called him a flea bitten mutt? Or your cat's feelings were hurt when you called him a "Crazy Critter" for jumping on your head in the middle of the night?
These people obviously have never been a "human carer" for a cat. With felines, the owner-pet dynamic is turned upside down and it is the cat who always holds the upper hand. They wrap us around their paws with ease and dominate the human-animal equation.
Dogs also exhibit such dominance, but only if you let them. Therefore, I call out these charlatans for pushing bull crap (I sure hope scatological references like that are still ok to say). And I pity any "companion animal" forced to endure the ministrations of these moralistic ninnies.
Oh, excuse me. I meant to say "human carers."
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