{"id":12838,"date":"2011-04-27T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=12838"},"modified":"2011-04-27T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T17:00:11","slug":"a-less-beastly-way-to-talk-about-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/a-less-beastly-way-to-talk-about-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"A less beastly way to talk about animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Anglican priest, Reverend Andrew Linzey, edits the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.press.uillinois.edu\/journals\/jane.html\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Animal Ethics<\/a> which has just published an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordanimalethics.com\/2011\/04\/news-release-animal-language-sends-wrong-message\/\">article<\/a> scolding humans for referring to animals by derogatory names.<\/p>\n<p>My dog tells me that he is relieved that at least one Anglican priest has his priorities straight.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A call for a new \u201canimal language\u201d has been made by some of the world\u2019s leading animal ethicists who say words like \u201cpests\u201d and \u201cvermin\u201d send out the wrong message and even our most common terms such as\u00a0\u201dpets\u201d and \u201cwild animals\u201d need updating.<\/p>\n<p>The editors of a new <em>Journal of Animal Ethics<\/em> (<em>JAE<\/em>) published this month by the University of Illinois Press say derogatory words like \u201cpests\u201d and \u201cvermin\u201d should be dropped altogether and \u201cpets\u201d replaced by \u201ccompanion animals\u201d, while \u201cwild animals\u201d should be termed \u201cfree living or free ranging animals\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite its prevalence, \u201cpets\u201d is surely a derogatory term both of the animals concerned and their human carers. Again the word \u201cowners\u201d, 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 \u2026\u00a0 In addition, we invite authors to use the words \u201cfree-living\u201d, \u201cfree-ranging\u201d or \u201cfree-roaming\u201d rather than \u201cwild animals\u201d\u2026 For most, \u201cwildness\u201d is synonymous with uncivilized, unrestrained, barbarous existence. There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur existing language about animals is the language of past thought \u2013 and the crucial point is that the past is littered with derogatory terminology: \u201cbrutes\u201d, \u201cbeasts\u201d, \u201cbestial\u201d, \u201ccritters\u201d, \u201csub-humans\u201d, and the like. We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves to use less than partial adjectives in our exploration of animals and our moral relations with them,\u201d they argue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Anglican priest, Reverend Andrew Linzey, edits the Journal of Animal Ethics which has just published an article scolding humans for referring to animals by derogatory names. My dog tells me that he is relieved that at least one Anglican &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/a-less-beastly-way-to-talk-about-animals\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2039,1345],"class_list":["post-12838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights","tag-animal-rights","tag-reverend-andrew-linzey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}