I guess I’m naive, but I admit to being flabbergasted by this bulletin from the ASPCA:

The ASPCA is advising pet parents to immediately discontinue the use of Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Chicken Dry Dog Food with the “best by” date of June 17, 2011, in 5- and 28-lb. bags. The manufacturer has announced a voluntary recall due to potential Salmonella contamination. No illnesses have been reported, and the Sweet Potato & Chicken Dry Dog Food with the aforementioned “best by” date is the only product affected. Pet parents should avoid direct contact and wash their hands thoroughly after handling any potentially contaminated food.

This is really quite shocking stuff for me. Not the bad dog food; I hold preprocessed dog food in low regard already, and an occurrence like this is not particularly surprising in any case — things like this happen in the human food supply too. What takes me aback is seeing the ASPCA refer to dog owners as “pet parents.” Is this where we are? Certainly, I know well the inclination of many dog owners to refer to themselves as Moms and Dads of their animals, in a cutesy way. But for the ASPCA to adopt this kind of language with no qualification or sense of irony is astounding to me. I know the ASPCA is not the government, as such, but it is the longest-lived, most prominent and most ubiquitous organization out there dealing with issues of animal care and welfare. Language matters, words matter, and to describe dog owners as “pet parents” in such an official fashion is a breathtaking leap of incoherence. How is anyone a pet parent, outside of copulating with a pet dog and bringing into being an animal/human hybrid? A dog or a cat is not a child. They may be valued as companions and friends, to be sure, but we have to remember that as lovable as they may be they are still not human. Confusing this issue can have terrible consequences, as the more extreme examples of “animal rights” activism would show. If animals are equal to humans, then the slaughterhouse down the road is an Auschwitz, and the people running it deserve death themselves. Pets are different to farm animals in our regard, of-course, and they deserve to be valued, but always understanding that they are still animals, and humans are something different.

When a dog owner refers to herself or himself as “Trixie’s Mom” or “Rover’s Dad” it’s easy to tolerate, without having to join in. It is, after all, one thing to do it in a cutesy or affectionate way, and there’s no need to get one’s knickers in a twist about it. But when an organization like the ASPCA adopts this concept and characterizes dog owners as “pet parents” in an entirely serious tone, then something else is going on; a line has been crossed. I don’t know exactly when the ASPCA first crossed this line and to what extent it might still pull back, but it is something that will have my attention from now on.

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By the way, all doggie “Moms and Dads” out there should also note that there has been a recall of Pro-Pet Adult Daily vitamins, also due to salmonella contamination. More details at this link.

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