{"id":6080,"date":"2011-05-18T12:50:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T19:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=6080"},"modified":"2011-05-18T12:52:13","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T19:52:13","slug":"is-owning-a-pet-discriminatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/is-owning-a-pet-discriminatory\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Owning a Pet Discriminatory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chuck<\/a>
Chuck Colson<\/figcaption><\/figure> by Chuck Colson –<\/p>\n

Do you own a pet? Well if you say you do, you are a purveyor of prejudice. At least that\u2019s what some so-called \u201cleading academics\u201d are saying.<\/p>\n

You see, according to the Rev\u2019d Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, we shouldn\u2019t even use the word \u201cpet,\u201d because the phrase is demeaning to animals.<\/p>\n

Instead, we should call a Labrador Retriever a \u201cCompanion animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

And please, don\u2019t use the word \u201cowner.\u201d That\u2019s demeaning to pets\u2014I mean, to companion animals\u2014as well. Instead, call yourself a \u201chuman carer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ay-yi-yi. What\u2019s another phrase for a \u201cleading academic\u201d? <\/p>\n

Of course, such language has its downsides. If some fellow is reaching out to a canine with a temper, instead of shouting \u201cDon\u2019t pet the dog!\u201d we\u2019d have to warn, \u201cDon\u2019t manually stroke the companion animal!\u201d Of course, by the time we got the words out, the poor man could have lost a finger.<\/p>\n

As reported by the U.K. Telegraph, Professor Linzey and his colleague, Prof. Priscilla Cohn of Penn State are quite serious. And they have a point: The language we use can shape the way we think.<\/p>\n

Linzey and Cohn say \u201cWe shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves\u201d to use appropriate language that reflects our proper \u201cmoral relations with\u201d animals.<\/p>\n

Ahh. And what might the proper moral relation be? Linzey and Cohn give us a hint. The word \u201cowner,\u201d they say, \u201cwhilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

They even object to the term \u201cwildlife.\u201d Linzey and Cohn \u201cinvite authors to use the words \u2018free-living\u2019, \u2018free-ranging\u2019 or \u2018free-roaming\u2019 rather than \u2018wild animals\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Why? Because, they say, \u201cFor most, \u2018wildness\u2019 is synonymous with uncivilised, unrestrained, barbarous existence. There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, what we\u2019re seeing here is Linzey\u2019s and Cohn\u2019s own prejudgment\u2014that Humans and animals are equals.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a perfectly natural conclusion if you hold to a secular, materialistic worldview. As I\u2019ve said many times before, if we humans are nothing more than a random collection of atoms that evolved out of the primordial soup, then, yes, we are no more valuable than the common ground slug.<\/p>\n

But the equality\u2014or near equality\u2014of animals and humans is a view that is creeping into the Church as well. The Telegraph says that Professor Linzey is a theologian who was awarded \u201can honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of \u2018God\u2019s sentient creatures.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But we are not all equal. Humans alone bear the image of God. And animals cannot have \u201crights\u201d in the way we humans do.<\/p>\n

Should we care for animals as part of God\u2019s creation? Of course. Christians have long recognized this. It was William Wilberforce, after all, who founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. But to treat them as equals or even near-equals? Never.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m with Linzey and Cohn on this: Words are important. Which is why you\u2019ll never catch me stroking a companion animal.<\/p>\n

HT: Break Point<\/a> (read full article)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chuck Colson – Do you own a pet? Well if you say you do, you are a purveyor of prejudice. At least that\u2019s what some so-called \u201cleading academics\u201d are saying. You see, according to the Rev\u2019d Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, we shouldn\u2019t even use the word \u201cpet,\u201d … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[72,74,35,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leftism","category-leftist-lunatic-fringe","category-philosophy","category-political-correctness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}