The founder of animal activist organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has called for people to stop calling their animals 'pets' because it 'reduces them to a commodity.'
Ingrid Newkirk from Surrey said: "Animals are not pets – they are not your cheap burglar alarm, or something which allows you to go out for a walk. They are not ours as decorations or toys, they are living beings."
PETA works to help animals to be free from laboratory testing, working in the clothing and entertainment industry and recently encouraged people to go vegan amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Ms Newkirk added: "How we say things governs how we think about them, so a tweak in our language when we talk about the animals in our homes is needed.
"A pet is a commodity but animals should not be things on shelves or in boxes, where people say, 'I like the look of that one, it matches my curtains or my sense of myself.'
"Hopefully the time is passing for that kind of attitude."
Senior media officer for PETA, Jennifer White appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss the statement and added: "We don't hate the word pet we're encouraging people to use something better like companion," before she was continuously shouted over by presenter Piers Morgan who asked her if PETA would change their name because it featured the word 'pet.'
