‘Owners’ and ‘pets’, or ‘human carers’ and ‘companion animals’?

“Animal companions”

From the Department of Give Me a Farking Break:

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.

And what kind of kook came up with this nonsense?

[The Journal of Animal Ethics] 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”.

Well, not to make a snark of it, but there’s all you need to know.

(via The Daily Grail)