‘Pets’ or 'companions'? Poll finds PETA has gone 'barking mad'

FPI / February 19, 2020

PETA is encouraging humans to call the animal friends in their home “companion” instead of “pet.”

Jennifer White, a senior media officer at PETA, spoke on Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan and co-host Susanna Reid about using the term “pet” to refer to domestic animals.

According to White, PETA feels “pet” is a derogatory term and suggested people should stop using it since it is not animal-friendly language.

She stated: “A lot of people at home who have dogs or cats will call them ‘pets’ and refer to themselves as ‘owners,’ and this implies that the animals are a possession, like a car, for example, When you refer to animals, not as the living beings they are, but as an inanimate object, it can reflect our treatment on these animals.”

Good Morning Britain conducted a poll on Twitter following White’s appearance on the show.

The tweet said: “Is it derogatory to call your four-legged friends 'pets'? The President of PETA has called on animal owners to stop using the word claiming it's a patronizing term comparable to the treatment of women before feminism.”

Poll respondents, by a count of 97 percent to 3 percent, said “No (PETA is barking mad)”.

The “pet” peeve is not PETA’s first war on words.

PETA argued words and idioms that involve meat products are offending to vegetarians and vegans. For example, instead of saying “flogging a dead horse” or “killing two birds with one stone,” the organization wants people to say “feeding a fed horse”, or “feeding two birds with one scone.”

In a Feb. 18 op-ed for RedState, T. LaDuke wrote: “I have to say it has been a while since I have heard from the loveable whack-a-doodles over at PETA and the whole time they were gone from my mind, I didn’t miss them. This story explains why.

“Seems that the language fascists in this leftist organization are getting a tad bit worked up over you calling your pet….a pet.”

LaDuke continued: “That these people have absolutely nothing better to do than take whatever they are taking and think of these things shows what morons they truly are. Do you know what a dog does when you call it a pet? Most likely wag its tail because you are paying attention to it and is hoping the word pet means treat. If you say that to a cat it doesn’t care because cats don’t care what any of us think.”

LaDuke concluded: “Please continue calling your furry companion a pet if you so choose and remember you need not worry if their feelings are hurt. They won’t be. Now we just have to figure out the next big thing these killjoys over at PETA are going to try and shove down our throats.”

Free Press International