by Mark Chesnut - Thursday, May 6, 2021
In yet another crazy effort in its long history of trying to make people believe animals and humans are equal—an important aspect of extremists’ push to ban hunting—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is pushing for several dictionaries to do away with what it calls “speciesist slurs” in their definitions of certain animals.
“Many popular dictionaries—including Merriam-Webster, the Collins English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary.com and WordReference.com—include speciesist slurs in their definitions of ‘dog,’ ‘pig,’ ‘rat’ and ‘snake,’ and they need to remove them or label them as such,” the group wrote in a recent action alert. “Definitions like these fuel speciesism—a belief that humans are superior to all other animals.”
PETA’s point is that calling people pigs, dogs or rats is a disservice and insult to the animals—not to the humans being insulted. The organization’s entire effort against so-called “speciesism” is designed to make people believe rats and people are completely equal in every way.
“If rats went to school, they would be straight-A students,” the alert expounded. “They excel at learning and have excellent memories, never forgetting how to navigate a route once they learn it.” As for snakes, PRTA says, “They are actually shy and secretive, and contrary to most people’s perceptions, they’re not aggressive or territorial.”
While those things might be true, they don’t make rats and snakes human. Yet PETA is even providing fill-in-the-blank templates for its supporters to send to Merriam-Webster, Collins, Oxford, Dictionary.com and WordReference.com to encourage them to ditch their blatant “speciesism.”
Sure, redefining dogs and pigs might seem like a funny thought and make us snicker a bit, but is there any doubt that “deer,” “quail,” “elk” and “turkey” might follow? Perhaps you think I’m making a stretch relating this to hunting? Just consider these words from the organization in the past.
“Although it was a crucial part of humans’ survival 100,000 years ago, hunting is now nothing more than a violent form of recreation that the vast majority of hunters do not need for subsistence,” PETA wrote in an issue paper titled “Why Sport Hunting Is Cruel And Unnecessary.” “Hunting has contributed to the extinction of animal species all over the world,” it added, “including the Tasmanian tiger and the great auk.”
Legal, regulated hunting has never been a threat to species’ survival, but the organization continued: “Less than 5 percent of the U.S. population (13.7 million people) hunts, yet hunting is permitted in many wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks and on other public lands. Almost 40 percent of hunters slaughter and maim millions of animals on public land every year, and by some estimates, poachers kill just as many animals illegally.” Once again, PETA is trying to conflate the crime of poaching with legal, regulated hunting and score points by confusing those in the middle.
In another paper titled “9 Things No One Told You About Hunting,” PETA continued its vile misinformation campaign against lawful hunters. Two of those nine “things” were:
“Real sports involve competition between consenting parties and don’t end with the deliberate death of one unwilling participant;” and “Hunters often accidentally injure and kill animals other than the ones being hunted, including horses, cows, dogs and cats.”
In fact, any effort that tries to lift animals up to the same social level as humans is a key recipe in PETA’s long-range plan to ban all hunting, whether it is focused on a common game animal or any other animal species. Hopefully, the dictionary editors receiving the templated requests to change their definitions will simply dismiss them—and PETA—just like most hunters tend to do.
About the Author
Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC in Jenks, Okla. An avid hunter, shooter and field-trialer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for over 20 years.
About the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum Website
Visit the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum website, NRAHLF.org, for the latest news on the state, national and international threats to hunting and wildlife conservation. When it comes to the activities of animal rights extremist groups, PETA’s latest efforts to “cancel” what it calls “outdated language” in America’s dictionaries is part of a long-range plan to establish personhood for animals, put an end to eating meat and owning pets, and shut down legal, regulated hunting as a food source and critical wildlife management tool.
For more on PETA, check out the following articles.