Spin off: Owner, parent, guardian which is right and does it make a difference

[Paks]

This seems to be an issue with some. I know when I’m talking to my cat or with my family I refer to myself as Mom or Mommie. I wouldn’t object to someone outside the family referring to me as mom when it comes to my cat but mommie would drive me straight up the wall. Guess I feel that is too silly for public us.

Guardian which they use a lot on my cat from hell seems a bit pretentious but does describe the responsibility of owning a companion animal.

Owner doesn’t really cover what I see as the relationship between me and my cat or my daughter and her puppy (she refers to herself as the puppy’s mom). I own my hairbrush and have a few more responsibilities and emotions involved in my relationship with my cat than I do the hairbrush.

I make it a habit to never name any animal after an inanimate object. I once sold a lead line pony to some people who renamed her training wheels. What do you with training wheels when you are done with them? That’s what happened to her. Fortunately a woman, I ran into later when I saw her with my old pony had answered an ad for a cheep pony. The pony, a Shetland, was rail thin with shelly hooves the trainer said the owners said to just get rid of her. The woman actually considered just calling animal control and getting her that way but paid the asking price and gave her a good forever home.

So I guess parent is my preferred reference. I have a friend who calls her adult kids dogs her grand puppies.

Opinions?

[Huntin_Pony]

It’s not about words, it’s about actions.

Some parents of humans don’t act responsibly. Many owners of pets do. And vice versa.

[MsM]

I have never found a term I like. Some people worry about the legal ramifications of “guardian” or “parent” versus “owner”. I am not too concerned with that for popular usage.
To me, owner just sounds too cold, while parent sounds too cutesy. I usually just refer to myself as my animals’ “person”. Not great, but what I am working with. I can refer to the dogs as “kids” , but not really in a “mommy” way. Also call them “guys” (a CT thing…) and permapups!

[scierra]

I’m my dogs guardian or owner. I paid for her through a rescue group, and that makes her my property in the eyes of the law. I really dislike the moniker pet parent, I did not give birth to her, I did adopt her, but she is my pet. With friends or family I might say I’m her mom, but only with friends or family.

I have always had at risk breeds, by that I mean breeds society has looked at as dangerous at one time or another, Dobermans, Rottweilers, And now a Pit mix. I take the responsibility of owning these type dogs seriously. It’s up to me to keep them safe. To me the pet parenting mentality makes it easier for people to forget these are animals who can do damage if in the wrong hands. dont get me wrong in thinking my dogs are not part of my family, my pitx is sleeping on the couch with her pillow right now.

[Bluey]

The trouble with guardian is that it is a well defined legal term you don’t want to mess with when it comes to the animals under your care.

If you are your animal’s guardian, you have few rights and many obligations and liabilities.
Anyone may not like how you keep your dog, cat, horse, fish and can sue you in the name of your animal.
They can and do today, but they don’t go very far, other than being annoying, as our animals are legally under our ownership.
That gives us many rights to determine how we keep them, along with basic responsibilities, of course, that we are legally liable for, you can’t abuse them.

If now all that have animals were legally considered not owners and animals property, but animals given “personhood” and people that have any animals to care for their guardians, as those animal rights extremist groups are working for, I expect they would get their wish, no one would be able to have any animals.

Imagine the field day animal rights extremists would have with that, how they would harass any animal owner into giving up their animals, that they don’t believe humans should care for and make any use of?

Not easy to wade thru all that.
Animal rights groups have herds of lawyers working for them trying to find ways to get animal ownership of any kind eliminated.

Changing the legal status of animals from propriety to guardianship is one way they are working on this, see the bills they keep trying to introduce to that effect.

[red_mares]

[QUOTE=MsM;8176177]
I have never found a term I like. Some people worry about the legal ramifications of “guardian” or “parent” versus “owner”. I am not too concerned with that for popular usage.
To me, owner just sounds too cold, while parent sounds too cutesy. I usually just refer to myself as my animals’ “person”. Not great, but what I am working with. I can refer to the dogs as “kids” , but not really in a “mommy” way. Also call them “guys” (a CT thing…) and permapups! :D[/QUOTE]

I worry about legal scope creep with people referring to themselves as guardians or even worse, parents, of pets. When some cutesy term becomes the common vernacular, some very shrewd people with an agenda will take advantage of it. Those people are already working that angle.

I find owner to be a very acceptable term for my relationship with my cats. I don’t find it cold, I find it realistic. I have no problem saying I own my cats, horse, dog or house.

Pets are not people.

[PeanutButterPony]

Owner.

I had a delightful orange cat we named Box.

You really worry about this stuff, like for reelz?

[Preposterous_Ponies]

First and foremost, I am an owner and I have the bills of sale to prove it. They are MY cats, MY dogs, MY horses, and MY rabbits. Not yours, MINE.

That being said, I am “mom” to my animals, in an informal setting.

[Marla_100]

[QUOTE=PeanutButterPony;8176207]
Owner.

I had a delightful orange cat we named Box.

You really worry about this stuff, like for reelz?[/QUOTE]

And I have a runt named “Motorboat”…bad me, bad me. whatcha gonna do?

[toady123]

Owner.

I personally find it weird to call pets “kids”, or myself their “parent”. They are not kids. They are dogs. I think it’s perhaps it’s because of the associations - anyone I have known to do this has been way over the top nuts so it just rubs me the wrong way.

People do refer to me as their “mom” and I don’t correct them. Both sets of parents also call them their grand-puppies as a term of endearment. My DH’s grandmother calls them her great-grand-puppies…usually followed by “you know you could give me a real great-grand-baby” out of the corner of her mouth :D.

[Countrywood]

I don’t really care all that much but to be honest I find it a bit cringe worthy when people say they are their pet’s mom or parent…a pet is not a child, we may love them as much and they may love us back more, but it’s stil not a child and imo makes pet owners sound a bit loopy when they do that.

I think guardian is ridiculous. We own the pet, and ownership implies responsibility .

[Curb_Appeal]

I am an owner. I am a mom to my human children and I love them WAY more than I could ever love a critter. “Pet parent” makes my skin crawl.

[Drive_NJ]

OWNER - definitely

if you support (legally) the use of guardian or any other of similar ilk - you are opening up the possibility of some “animal rights” group taking over the decisions (that you would still have to pay for) or even taking over the animal
because YOU are not up to THEIR standards

you can still be your pets family as the owner but it maintains the right of decision and ownership to YOU

[Casey09]

That is such a hard question. I don’t call my dogs my kids because if I wanted kids I’d have wanted to have human babies. I wanted dogs instead.:winkgrin:
On the other hand, I’m not sure that owner accurately describes the huge place in my life that my animals have. I have a great relationship with my human family members as well and see myself as well adjusted, but I do take my animals into account whenever I make a big decision and I feel a very deep love for all of them. When I own something, like a house or a car, the decisions I make about the item are ones that will serve me best. With my animals, I look out for what is best for them and take their best interests very seriously. However, I wouldn’t want to open up the door to what guardianship implies.
On the names, I must admit I’ve gone both ways with human names and other words I thought were appropriate. I’ve never gotten rid of or rehomed an animal. I’ve rearranged my life to accommodate even undesirable quirks, so I’d say the theory doesn’t always hold.
I do think that some people who most vehemently hate terms like pet parent might sometimes come off as denigrating those for whom animals take up a bigger part of their life. Everybody’s different.
I’ve never called myself mom because I didn’t want to be a mom, I wanted to have dogs. I had an emergency one day and my own mom picked my dog up from the groomer. Apparently when she announced who she was there for, the lady said, “you’re not his momma. Where is his momma?” We thought it was the sweetest thing that she was so concerned about the dog and me.
I do agreement though, that PETA and other such groups are not a friend to those of us who share our lives with domesticated animals.

[PeanutButterPony]

I am reminded that I own a horse I routinely call 40 watt. He’s dim. And he’s much loved and a brave, fun trail horse. He’s also quite handsome and meets me at the gate every time.

In summary, I own a horse called 40 Watt. At no point have I forgotten that he needs more from me than a hairbrush ever will.

Strange.

[CHT]

Most of our cats are named after chocolate bars…and I have never tried to eat one of them.

My small animal vet calls them “fur babies”.

I call them my “bubs”.

How to label my relationship with them has not concerned me. I am not even sure owner applies in all cases as technically Kitten is owned by our neighbour, and Charlie by a boarder. Most of the other cats and one dog just showed up and decided they live here. I guess technically for them, I am their care giver.

[Countrywood]

Around the house, in private, call them baby and yourself mom or dad or whatever. In public, imo owner is more appropriate , we are their owners which is a privilege of course.

[millerra]

My job as a human parent is to teach my human kids how to be good, kind, responsible, hard working adult humans. They are expected to leave home and to start their own families/households.

I have no such expectations of my pets or horses… they are my dear dear friends and partners and I expect to be responsible for their lives and well being until the end… suffice it to say, I’m sure my human kids would rather be my pets…

[red_mares]

[QUOTE=PeanutButterPony;8176385]

In summary, I own a horse called 40 Watt.[/QUOTE]

I love that name.

[Houndhill]

I prefer owner, very much dislike parent or guardian, for the legal implications but also the “ick” factor. They are definitely members of my family, but animal members.

I am a Breeder, Owner, Handler, and have bred the previous generations pretty far back, so it seems very weird and wrong to me to call myself the Mom of an Irish Wolfhound.

I also never call them “Pets”. They are my beloved companions, working partners in our competitive activities, and occupy a huge part of my life. I feel the term “Pet” trivializes that relationship and it grates on my nerves when I hear that term applied to them.

Vets offices are sometimes culprits in using the term “pet”, but I think it may be because they need a term to include people’s dogs and cats, and they don’t want to call them “animals”, though I find that term preferable.

I also have a visceral nauseated reaction to calling them “Wolfies” or “Furkids”. So demeaning to them! They are noble creatures and deserving of more respect than that.