I was excited to see that they had a contest asking people to tell their stories about how they "adopted" their Sheltie. I was all set to enter, when I saw this statement in response to someone asking if their Sheltie had to be "adopted" in order to enter "I will publish them on the website... for all to see. Doesn't matter how you met, I use the term 'adopt' loosely :)"
I know that the administrator of the fan page probably had no ulterior motives other than making sure everyone felt included, but it touched a nerve with me. Maybe because my friend Edie had just recently posited a question about a similar topic - How Do You Define a Rescue? in which she shared how someone had purchased a puppy from a breeder and had claimed the dog had been "rescued", or maybe because I've volunteered at an animal shelter for 8 years it's just hard for me to see the term "adopted" in any other light than meaning "adopted from an animal shelter" or "adopted from a rescue".
I'm kind of a nut when it comes to the proper use of words anyways, so maybe I'm just being too sensitive on this one. When people use a term like adopted "lightly" they don't know that puppy mill breeders have no problem with the term either. If it gets them to sell another dog; makes them another dollar, they will call a puppy "adopted". It matters not to them.
But like I said, maybe I'm just being too sensitive. I can only speak as Daisy's mom. I can only guess that it would matter to Daisy. The question is... Does it matter to you? How do you define adopted?
No, you are not a nut or too sensitive. It matters when people try to purposely distort the definition of terms accepted by society as a whole. That kind of behavior becomes a fraud on the public. We see it often in politics.
ReplyDeleteDogs get adopted from two places - shelters or rescues - not from Petland or other puppy mill loving pet shops. The attitude you quoted makes me think very little of the quality of the place it came from - what the writer is basically saying is "whatever lie you want to perpetrate, I'll be happy to endorse and publish it." Not a place I'd want to visit twice:) But then, that's just me. Other may not have that nagging problem of expecting the truth from published sources.
Thanks Mary. That's how I felt too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not cool with misrepresenting the truth - even if it's over something as simple as a term like "adopted".