http://www.avma.org/advocacy/s.....ership.asp

If you decide to just skim the page, at least slow down long enough to read the third bullet point under “Society”.

There are a host of other webpages out there as well that point out the issues inherent in the movement to replace “owner” with “guardian”. It’s another “feel-good” strategy with implications that many folks may not have fully stopped to consider. And the fact is that *already existing* welfare laws - IF ENFORCED - are already in place to take care of most of the issues that this proposed nomenclature change is supposedly supposed to address.

Instead of focusing on moniker changes I think the effort would be better spent on facilitating change on some of the more important issues facing homeless animals, abused animals, and food production critters.

Then there is Junior, talk about what we do for the love of a cat! He sprays, unfortunately… We’d do anything to get him to stop, actually we have been doing everything we can think of: Liquid Prozac, (it tastes like spearmint, terrible stuff!) he inhaled it and foamed at the mouth, he got pneumonia and we got a thousand dollar vet bill…Decided he needed heart meds…acts much better, still spraying. Put together the outdoor play area, complete with door…didn’t matter, still spraying… Tried Lasix, for the placebo effect, seems to help, still spraying… Treated him for infection, just in case, still spraying… Tried the huge litterbox, just for him, didn’t care, still spraying…So now it’s transdermal Prozac. It’s new and only available at a specialty medical supply place on the other side of town. They make it special just for him. It’s more than an hours drive round trip, I got lost, both on the way up there, and then again on the way back. But ‘lo and behold, its working!! He’s not spraying any more!! Dave is not freaking out any more!! Junior is relaxed and happy and his oh so sweet self once again. There is peace and quiet in the house once again!!
We love our cats, they certainly are companions. They are soft and sweet and take the pains of this world away. We shelter them and shower them with love. They give back so much more; we would be lost without their love.

“They are, from what I can tell, far more interested in your pet’s welfare than its nomenclature.”

You might want to read this:

http://www.petakillsanimals.co.....nimals.cfm

“I don’t use the word ‘pet.’ I think it’s speciesist language. I prefer ‘companion animal.’”
— The Harper’s Forum Book, Jack Hitt, ed., 1989, p.223

They are, from what I can tell, far more interested in your pet’s welfare than its nomenclature.

Christie, this is so totally unreal, but I had whooping cough this summer, too, and you may be hacking up your lungs until Halloween. The 100-day cough, as it’s supposedly called… I cracked a rib. Huge suckage, and the cough is going away just in time for the start of school. Sigh. [cough, cough]

Even mom hardly describes the relationship - they are my comfort, my therapists, my companions, all that and more. Every one of them (and at my age there have been many many) has had a piece of my heart and then - when inevitably they depart - they leave me richer and forever grateful for the time we’ve had together.

“It?” someone wants you to use “it” for any animal? Like calling firefighters, nurses, doctors, friends “it”? Like spouses, children, editors “it”? Heck, even the wild visitors around here get pronouns, as in “that bear was back and she sat down in my raspberries again!” (Sad but true.) Thanks Gina (and all the rest of the good writers) and keep fighting for those pronouns.

Other than that, what Gina said for the reasons The OTHER Pat gave: My dogs. I decide what they eat, how they live, and what medical care they get, because they’re MINE.

Do I feel in some cosmic spiritual sense I “own” them like I own my car? No.

But I am legally their owner and that’s exactly how I want it to stay, because that’s how I can best protect and care for them.

Okay, must go hack up a lung.