The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Animal Crackers
The editors of a new academic journal called Animal Ethics hope to introduce a new vocabulary of politically correct jargon, London’s Daily Telegraph reports:
Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers,” they insist.
Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned–who should instead be known as “free-living,” the academics including an Oxford professor suggest. . . .
“Despite its prevalence, ‘pets’ is surely a derogatory term both of the animals concerned and their human carers,” the editorial claims.
“Again the word ‘owners’, whilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use without moral constraint.” . . .
Phrases such as “sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk” are all unfair to animals, they claim.
We’ll refrain from observing that these guys sound dumb as a rock, lest the editors of Mineral Ethics have a cow.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
NOTE: Taranto is traveling today. The excerpt above is from a May 1, 2011 StudentNewsDaily “Best of the Web” post.
