Animal activists PETA no longer want you calling animals ‘pets’ because it is a derogatory term implying ownership
Animal rights activist group PETA want people to stop calling animals “pets” because the term is derogatory.
Ingrid Newkirk, founder, said that people should instead use the word “companion,” reported.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals founder compared the term to condescendingly calling women "sweetie" or "honey" to make them appear "less of a person," Express reported.
“How we say things governs how we think about them, so a tweak in our language when we talk about the animals in our homes is needed,” Newkirk said.
She added: “A pet is a commodity but animals should not be things on shelves or in boxes, where people say, 'I like the look of that one, it matches my curtains or my sense of myself.'”
"They are not ours as decorations or toys, they are living beings," she said, as reported by Express.
The organization has long advocated for equal rights of animals.
In a recent interview on Newkirk emphasized humans are not superior to animals, in what she referred to as “speciesism.”
“We sometimes think we’re gods. And we’re not gods, and animals aren’t trash,” Newkirk said.
She added: “We should all be in this together and really, consideration, respect, understanding, nonviolence — surely that’s something that everybody can embrace. Doesn’t matter what you look like.”
An estimated 67 percent of Americans have a pet in their household, according to the .
Advocating for calling animals “companions” rather than “pets” is just one of pushes for change of action from PETA.
Last week, amid reports that the coronavirus outbreak may be linked to a food market in Wuhan, China, .
“We cannot expect to continue living on planet Earth if we continue to eat animals,” PETA said in a statement.
“It’s really that simple. The easiest thing that you can do for your own health and the world we live in is to go vegan right now and persuade everyone you know to do the same.”
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PETA also advocated for the use of an artificial groundhog to be used on Groundhog Day each year, as Newkirk said in a letter that each year on the big day.
Newkirk recently authored the recently released book, Animalkind.
The book details research that animals are “astounding beings with intelligence, emotions, intricate communications networks, and myriad abilities,” a .
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