Showing posts with label use of language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label use of language. Show all posts

Saturday, 19 September 2020

It's time to stop calling our companion animals "pets"

I have always thought that describing companion animals as "pets" is inappropriate or to put it another way, we can do better. I subscribe to the attitude of PETA in this respect. It's interesting and ironic that the word "pet" is in their acronym which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This is why they have asked the public to pronounce the acronym as if they are saying "Peter". It's a slight embarrassment to the organisation, but back to the point of this article.


Discussing the topic: Are humans more valuable than animals? And: the pros and cons of using the word "pet".

The point is that the use of language effects the behaviour of humans. It works backwards. Humans create the language and if that language is imperfect it can have an impact upon the behaviour of humans. Or it perpetuates bad behaviour. Use of the word "pet" encourages the notion that people own sentient beings and can do what they like with those animals. Clearly, the vast majority of people treat their companion animals nicely but there will always be a significant minority who don't. Changing the use of language may have a beneficial impact upon these people and upon society in general which may in turn improve companion animal welfare. The law supports the notion that people own animals as they are considered "chattels" under the law in the UK. The law needs upgrading.

In the video we see Piers Morgan barely giving the lady from PETA a chance to respond to his questions. He bullies and dominates and she handles it very well. It is very hard to deny that she has good sense. It is hard to argue against PETA's argument. It doesn't matter whether you're right-wing or left-wing or down the middle. Piers Morgan is clearly a right-wing personality or at least he behaves like that. Right-wing people are more prone to regard pets as an object to be owned. That is the stereotypical argument.

They also discuss other sayings like "let the cat out of the bag". This is a very old fashion saying which goes back to times when farmers were selling pigs in a bag. Rather than put a young pig in a bag they put a cat instead because the cat had a lower or nil value and if the cat escaped the fraud was exposed hence the phrase "let the cat out of the bag", which means that a lie or fraud has been exposed. PETA don't like the phrase because it denigrates the domestic cat. It's a phrase from past times which should be pensioned off to put it politely.

As a society, we owe it to ourselves to do all we can to improve animal welfare. It reflects on us. Small changes to language may help us achieve that objective. Piers Morgan should do better as an interviewer! Although, I do like him.

Friday, 7 October 2011

Should veterinarian be capitalized?

No, neither the word "veterinarian" nor the shortened version, "vet" should be capitalized (capitalised) in modern English. By "capitalized" I mean the first letter of the word is in upper case. The first letter of words should be capitalized under certain rules. These rules have evolved over the years. English has become much less formal.  Accordingly, the rule on capitalizing the first letter has become less demanding.

Animal doctor (veterinarian) with young cat in vet clinic. Photo: Pixabay.
Animal doctor (veterinarian) with young cat in vet clinic. Photo: Pixabay.

Places and geographic terms are started with an upper case letter. "New York" is one example. "London" is another and "North America" is a typical example.

The word "veterinarian" describes a profession, no more. You wouldn't call a train driver a "Train Driver", would you? The fact that a veterinarian has a better status (some would say) in society does not make any difference.

Two last points. The word "vet" can also mean a person who has retired from the armed forces (short for "veteran"). It is better therefore to spell out the entire word on the internet so that Google can understand its meaning.

The word "internet" can be spelled with a capitalized first letter - "Internet". But modern English, particularly internet English favours ease and speed hence lower case.

Here is an example in a sentence. "My veterinarian is very good with cats. His veterinary practice is just down the road".

Sometimes people refer to veterinarians as "animal doctors". Veterinarians themselves like to be referred to as doctors because they feel that they have the same status as doctors.

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