Piers Morgan in his typically combative but engaging style argues with PETA representatives in this video over their name: PETA. He argues that as PETA have stated that people should not use the word ‘pet’ because it is demeaning to companion animals they should change their name to remove the ‘PET’ section! Despite the fact that it is an acronym. I get the argument. However Piers and the PETA representatives don’t realise that officially PETA pronounces its name as ‘Peter’. Yes it is true and I realise now why. They want to avoid pronouncing PET as ‘pet’ so they have decided to pronounce PET as ‘peat’. Wow, that’s complicated. I wrote about this some time ago in an article about how PETA should be pronounced and at the time could not figure out why they wanted people to say Peter. Now I know.
Hear how PETA is pronounced…..Click the play button. At the time I could not understand why they pronounced it as they did…
Personally, I don’t like the word ‘pet’ either. It is patronising to companion animals. I know that looks like anthropomorphising cats and dogs but it is more than that. Not referring to cats and dogs as pets helps to improve animal welfare as it helps people to relate to them as equals and members of the family as all good companion animal guardians do already. I also use ‘guardian’ rather than ‘owner’ for the same reason. It is a way of changing attitudes and human behavior through language. The same battle is taking place in the LGBTQ world. Some might think it is an example of unwanted political correctness. I don’t think it is and I dislike political correctness. It is very hard to change cultural attitudes because they are fixed by thousands of years of evolution. The human’s relationship with companion animals is still very much evolving and developing. However, I am pleased to report that it is improving in the interests of animal welfare. Anything which can speed up the process should be welcome. Language is one of the ways.
How To Pronounce ‘PETA’ (as in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
