Tuesday, May 10, 2011

File "B" for Bonkers: Animal Cruelty

Brady (left) and Reggie (right) Contemplating The Implications
Where's the cruelty in animal cruelty? In the word animal, apparently.
Animal ethicists are calling for a new vocabulary about animals, shunning words such as 'pets,' 'wildlife,' and 'vermin' as derogatory and even suggesting 'animal' is a 'term of abuse'.
Instead of “pet,” the Journal of Animal Ethics suggests “companion animal.” Rather than “wildlife,” they are to be called “free-living.” “Differentiated beings” or “non-human animals” is preferred to simply “animals.”
Can we still call a spade a spade and a dog a dog? And a spayed dog, well, you get the idea. I tried it out last night on our boys. I call them dogs. That's right, dogs. Specifically, I look at them, put on my I'm-speaking-to-the-dogs voice and inform them that they are "good dogs", stretching out the dogs (the word, not the dogs).

Neither Reggie nor Brady were the least bit offended by this. Not. Even. Perturbed.

And, I call them "the boys".

Is that still OK?

And that's the way the doggedly determined Ball bounces.
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6 comments:

don muntean said...

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian and i love my PET cats! More idiots trying to make change by force, lead by example right?

Norm 204 said...

Relax, there is nothing wrong here. We are all on a journey into the Twilight Zone. Enjoy the trip.

Alain said...

I can see it already. A busybody files a complaint with one of the many HRCs, or better yet with all of them at once, on behalf of hateful speech against pigs (or whatever), because someone else used the expression of eating like a pig. Of course since neither the complaint nor the HRC staff have ever seen pigs eat, the accused is found guilty.

BallBounces said...

As a matter of fact, I think "eating like a pig" is on their list of offensive expressions.

BallBounces said...

Come to think of it, I never asked Brady and Reggie for their permission to publish their photos. Do you think I may be in trouble?

maryT said...

What about animals or creatures or whatever being mean to humans.
Must share this.
A naturalist is working at a provincial park in southern Alberta.
Snakes are common there. Recently he discovered a rattler on his trail. He picked it up and took it in his trailer to study it. He was bitten, and the ambulance had to go 30 miles to get him, transfer him to the local hospital for the venom shot, then airlifted to Calgary.
Wonder what his findings were.
Bet he will never pick up a rattler again with his bare hands.
Where did he take his university training to be so stupid.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"