Thursday 10 October 2013

are our dogs companions or property?

Further to my post yesterday about how we think about our dogs, today I received an email from PetMD with a discussion of words we use to refer to our pets.

Is Penny 'it'? Or is the correct pronoun 'she'? (I think 'she'. She's as much a female animal as I am.)

Is she my 'pet'? My 'companion'? My property?

At the bottom of the PetMD article there are many interesting comments. Some hate the idea of pets as property, but one person says that the concept of 'owning' a dog gives him rights and means no one can harm his dog. On the other hand, to me the danger might be that it means only that if someone harms his dog they have to pay him recompense.

No money could make up to me the distress if someone harmed Penny.

4 comments:

Kari in Alaska said...

companions!!!

Stop on by for a visit
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

parlance said...

Kari. I agree. Companion!

Johann The Dog said...

We found out first hand about the property stigma when YoYo was hurt a time ago. Property doesn't have rights, only people do, so compensation only relates to the cost of the item. No attorney would take our case when I wanted to pursue action to receive some compensation for the $4,000 in vet bills. We did end up settling with the company's insurance company. But if it had been another individual, rather than a company, we wouldn't have been able to pursue anything. Very sad....and one of my pet peeves, so to speak.

parlance said...

Johann, it's a difficult question, isn't it? I think the time will come when we realise animals have rights too.