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AIBU?

Animals dont get insulted if you call them pets

50 replies

RitaBix · 28/04/2011 19:10

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8479391/Calling-animals-pets-is-insulting-academics-claim.html

I cant even think af anything to say. I am flabbergasted

OP posts:

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Geocentric · 28/04/2011 22:37

My companion doesn't bark - she articulates opinions. She is often very opinionated at 3am. I go downstairs and kick her out gently debate her point of view...

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Honeydragon · 28/04/2011 22:37

I think we're on to something here about dogs are stoopid

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Scuttlebutter · 28/04/2011 22:42

Hmmm. Going against the grain a bit here, and yes, it does sound a bit bonkers at first sight, but I actually think he could be on to something. God knows we see enough threads on MN about people treating their companion animals (and this is becoming quite a mainstream phrase, and there's nothing wrong with it) with contempt, as disposable commodities, or like furry toys. Or, just as bad, as anthropomorphised (long, difficult word) furry kids.

Sometimes it's helpful to stand back and look at how we relate to animals and why it is that we veer as a society from treating some as members of the family to collectively paying through our taxes to kill many thousands of unwanted, healthy dogs (for instance) each year via our local Councils. I think that trying to better unpick some of those complexities and contradictions is the thinking behind this chair and this journal and I for one welcome it, as we could do with some more ethical thinking on this issue.

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BeerTricksPotter · 28/04/2011 22:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Scuttlebutter · 28/04/2011 22:58

Having said that, I do think he's bonkers to complain about "wildlife". FFS.

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Honeydragon · 28/04/2011 22:58

I concur entirely with what Scuttlebutter has said, but also like Beertricks said "its all in the presentation". A loved and cared for pet will always be better off than an abused companion animal.

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izzywhizzyletsgetbusy · 29/04/2011 02:42

Is this a mumsnet scoop (speed dials Reuters)?

Seems that Pagwatch may have had sneaky preview of the Wedding Vows [cenvy]

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MikeOxstiff · 29/04/2011 06:03

What about the racist/offensive names we call our pets?

Sooty,blacky etc for black companions
snowey for white ones
how doe the red haired ones feel by being called ginger?

Should these offensive names stop?

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nooka · 29/04/2011 06:34

I don't think that people who have pets generally refer to them as 'pets' anyway (pests maybe ). I mean we have our family dog, and we have our cats. The dog is a member of the family, requiring lots of love and attention whilst the cats really just live here, take what they please and give what they feel like back. If we moved out I suspect the cats would be quite happy to live with whoever moved in (assuming their demands were met).

If guess I could start referring to the local birds, dear, bears etc as free ranging/roaming but it would make me think of them more as as food (free range chicken spring to mind). Granted many of my neighbours do go out hunting, but I'm sure that's not what the professors have in mind.

Here wildlife live in the wilderness, and neither is a pejorative word.

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Honeydragon · 29/04/2011 08:14

Looks like this article has spread, the hedgehogs in my backgarden were marching in my garden last night with teeny little right to roam signs.

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TethersEnd · 29/04/2011 08:25

Loving Mike's attempt to start an argument on this one

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MarshaBrady · 29/04/2011 08:36

Interesting. Like scuttle's reasoning. Animal companion hmm will people use it I wonder.

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WhiteBumOfTheMountain · 29/04/2011 08:42

PinkFOndant my MIL also thinks her dogs are human babies! They're massive, drooly and sometimes mean but she continues to call them by the same pet names as she calls my kids!

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PinkFondantFancy · 29/04/2011 08:48

whitebum same here!!!! She wants to buy a high chair so the dogs can sit at the table with everyone else at mealtimes.... [cconfused]

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WhiteBumOfTheMountain · 29/04/2011 08:55

AaAAGH! OMG! That's the most precioous Doggy Mummy behaviour I have heard yet! [cgrin]

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cjel · 29/04/2011 09:11

Am really worried, was going to get a puppy this week but not sure now if I will manage, how will I know when I get it wrong will pup tell me and am I stilll allowed to talk baby talk and give her toys to play with or will she need books and educational tv programmes? should I risk it?

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Pagwatch · 29/04/2011 09:35

Belated hahahahahahahahaha at izzywhizzy

That would be fab, wouldn't it? But would Kate really marry a man with a very hairy bumhole?

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MikeOxstiff · 29/04/2011 15:04

TethersEnd
I am not trying to start an argument

Some companion animals might find it insulting. They have feelings too

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izzywhizzyletsgetbusy · 29/04/2011 15:10

Thought crossed my mind too, Pagwatch, but given that there is most probably a surfeit of flunkeys tasked with applying priceless heirloom razors to assorted Royal orifices, would Kate even know whether her new spouse suffers from rectal hirsuitism?

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izzywhizzyletsgetbusy · 29/04/2011 15:15

Whoops - meant to say 'hirsutism', but no doubt there's a flunkey or two charged with the task of scraping shaving the arses of the Royals trousers before they're sent to the cleaners.

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nooka · 29/04/2011 15:57

I think that companion animal is already taken in any case - isn't that what the dogs for the blind, deaf etc called? We were trying to persuade my mother that she should have a trained helping dog for her next dog (she has very bad arthritis) to pic things up fr her etc and I'm sure they were called companion dogs.

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TooManyBlossoms · 29/04/2011 16:29

So does that mean I'm not allowed to call my dog Big Fat Hairy Bastard any more? And tell her to hurry up and die?

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ratspeaker · 29/04/2011 16:33

Called the cat pet
he miaowed and wanted food
Called the cat fanjo
he miaowed and wanted food
Called the cat cat
he miaowed and wanted food

He's either not easily insulted or a greedy bgger

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Ephiny · 29/04/2011 17:06

I think he has a reasonable point too, though possibly not one most of society is ready to hear yet, so I'm not surprised it's met with ridicule mostly. Obviously dogs don't care what you call them - I talk all kinds of nonsense to mine and call him various silly names - but language does affect the way we think and act to some extent. It's about the effect on us, not on the animals directly!

I don't like 'pets' so much as it implies the animals just exist for us to pet, and the extension of that in many cases is that they get badly treated, given to children as toys, and discarded when they're no longer useful. Not always the case, of course, but sometimes challenging the language used is a good way of getting people to think and reassess their beliefs.

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NulliusInVerba · 29/04/2011 17:24

Well I call my cat the "love of my life" So where do I fit into this?

Plus cats own us we dont own them, they know we are the stupid species in the room......

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