[QUOTE=Houndhill;8177530]
To everyone who considers their dog a “pet”…do you consider your horse a “pet”? Why, or why not?[/QUOTE]
I do, but tragically my work doesn’t. Thus it won’t pay for relocation, since it’s “livestock”.
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.
Owner and pet. I hate furmommy, furkid, etc. as being too too. The people using fur+ seem to do it to advertise their own specialness, rather than as a way of demonstrating their attachment to their pet. On the other hand, I do regard my dog as my baby, though I tend to avoid making the direct comparison to mothers, who seem to find it offensive 
I find “guardian” even more eye-rolling, as it’s so labored.
In one-on-one conversations with my animals, I am “mom.” These are those conversations where the animals ( horse or dog) is “answering” back via…well…me… I don’t tend to hold these conversations where anyone else can hear. They would think I was mad. ! Maybe I am!
With animal loving friends and family, from time to time, they call me “mom” in relation to my animals. I rarely tend to use the term myself.
What do I say out in the world, I tend to say “my dog”, “My horse”-- I do not say “owner” although I suppose that is somewhat implicit in “my”-- they are “my” animals, whether through ownership or through love, however the term “my” is being used.
I even go so far to say how much one of my dogs looks like her “momma” (me) with “thick curly hair, a snub nose, and green eyes.” My dog preens and smiles when I say it. She doesn’t understand the words. She does get the connection sense through those words. My family jokes how close her personality is to mine. We all get the difference between human parent/child relationships and pet relationships. Calling me her “momma” is just a reflection of how much I love the heck out of my dog-- and all my animals. Whatever label is put on the relationship.
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
I suppose if this ever happened I would have to think about this topic more. I’m surprised it’s gone 3 pages already.
I call myself the owner of my dogs, the reluctant owner of the 2 cats that showed up…the owner of 5 equines, even the 3 that are only “pets” because they are not rideable.
[QUOTE=S1969;8177782]
I suppose if this ever happened I would have to think about this topic more. I’m surprised it’s gone 3 pages already.
I call myself the owner of my dogs, the reluctant owner of the 2 cats that showed up…the owner of 5 equines, even the 3 that are only “pets” because they are not rideable. :)[/QUOTE]
I’m shocked it went beyond one page. It was just a pre coffee post because someone had a huge issue with pet owners being referred to as pet parents and I was curious how big an issue was this. Bigger than I thought it turns out.
And just for the record to me a fur mommy would be a cat who has kittens or a pet who acts like a parent to a human (I had one of those as a teenager if I stayed up too late doing homework she would lay across my books and bit my hand if I tried to move her)
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
I’d find it odd, because people don’t speak that way. Like, my mechanic calls to tell me my car is ready, not my property. The blanket cleaner tells me my blankets are ready for pick-up, not my property.
Maybe that my animal is ready, but generally, they’d specify the kind of animal.
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure I understand… do you mean if they literally said “your property” or if they said “your dog”? As in, you feel they should be referred to by name rather than by “property” or species?
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
If the vet techs said that instead of referring to me as “Mom” I would be thrilled!
At last someone in the animal/pet industry who understands that pets are not people.
They are property just like when someone calls after your car’s maint is done after an oil change. They say “your car” is ready. You own it so it is yours
^^^ oops guess this is a repeat. I didn’t read the replies first … lol
I say that I own my cats, and call them my pets. However, in reality, I know very well that I am their servant. I do own my horse, and she’s not smart enough to have learned how to make me do her bidding.
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
Is this an exercise in ‘Sentences you’ve neither heard or said before?’
“you dropped your phone, ma’am” vs. “you dropped your property, ma’am”
“your dog just won first place! Congratulations!” vs. “Your mammal just won first place, Congratulations!”
“American Pharaoh may win the Triple Crown!” vs. “Someone’s property may win the third of three races for 3 year old TBs in a series commonly referred to as the Triple Crown!”
This here some sho nuff naval pickin, y’all!
Oh, dear, I’m all over the place on this one. At home I refer to my Mastiff as “my son.” The French bulldog is a “grand dog” and the Golden Retriever is generally referred to as “the blue fish” because she can’t remember something from one second to the next.
We use people type names for dogs and cats, and some horses. Hail Caesar is kind of a people name as is Charlie-the-Percheron. Grand daughter named Max A. Million. My horse, however is named WD-4D because he makes life easy (it’s a house hold oil that solves about any problem from gum in hair to stuck zipper).
It does bother me when OTHER people gush over their pets --but it doesn’t bother me when I do. I suppose that makes me a hypocrite.
Foxglove
[QUOTE=Coanteen;8177825]
I’d find it odd, because people don’t speak that way. Like, my mechanic calls to tell me my car is ready, not my property. The blanket cleaner tells me my blankets are ready for pick-up, not my property.
Maybe that my animal is ready, but generally, they’d specify the kind of animal.[/QUOTE]
Okay it that is too big a hypothetical How a bout it is ready to be picked up. basically whatever your mind ca n hand that your dog or cat is thought of as a thing.
[QUOTE=Paks;8178498]
Okay it that is too big a hypothetical How a bout it is ready to be picked up. basically whatever your mind ca n hand that your dog or cat is thought of as a thing.[/QUOTE]
Strawman.
[QUOTE=Paks;8177609]
Another way to look at it. How would you feel if your vet or groomer called to say your property was ready now.[/QUOTE]
A helluva lot less confused than if they informed my daughter had been bathed. flea-dipped, and dried.
The trouble with trying to give animals personhood status and humans that keep them guardianship over them is that, well, while humans are animals, humans are the only human animal.
That is why trying to give personhood to animals is anthropomorphic thinking and not based on the real world we all inhabit.
I hope that, even when we consider some of our animals our friends and family members, we do so understanding their place as the animals they are, not as a make believe fuzzy, furry, feathered or scaled wannabe human.
[QUOTE=Ghazzu;8178542]
A helluva lot less confused than if they informed my daughter had been bathed. flea-dipped, and dried.[/QUOTE]
And toenails clipped.:lol:
[QUOTE=Paks;8178498]
Okay it that is too big a hypothetical How a bout it is ready to be picked up. basically whatever your mind ca n hand that your dog or cat is thought of as a thing.[/QUOTE]
I feel that you’re being disingenuous. Ok, you have a preference, to be referred to as a parent or guardian, and that’s fine. Others prefer, or at least don’t mind, to be referred to as owner.
But you keep poking and poking, as if the answer for that second group would change. Well, what if they say “your property is ready? Well, what if they say your thing is ready? What if they say it is ready? What if, huh? Huh huh? How would that make you ~feel~?”
I’d feel perfectly fine. Bit weirded out because no one actually says “your property” when referring to my horse; they might, and have, said “your horse is ready.”
Most objects aren’t gendered, hence “it” is proper. In some languages objects are gendered, so hair brushes and cars get referred as “she” or “he”. My vet and trainer know the sex of my horse, so it’s more normal, in our language, for them to refer to her as “she” than “it”.
If someone did use “it”, the context would most likely be something like “hey, whose horse, it’s pretty/ can I ride it/ did it win”. I would not take offence because that’s… also pretty normal use of language. I wager someone at some point has referred to your pets as “it” within that normal verbal context, and you didn’t freak on them (and probably didn’t notice).
:lol::lol::lol::lol:
Vet techs and groomers should say “Your dog (cat) is ready” or refer to him/her by name. “Fluffy is ready”
I own them. I pay their bills. They will never grow up and be independent of my care and responsibility unless I sell or give them away.
I might call them kiddo or sweetie or pups or kitkat. I love them for what they are - not humans. And I own them.
I don’t parent them. Hopefully I train them, feed them, keep their needs met. As a good owner.
They are not allowed to go to McDonald’s by themselves and get lunch. They can’t enter food stores or restaurants at all as they are not Service animals - nor humans.
They are companion animals that live in close connection with humans in the home. And I own them.
