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Humans have used animals as a resource since both first walked the world together. Livestock have been used to create, manage, and provision farms, while many other animals act as guards, companions, and playthings. Scores of different species have played a wide range of roles in cultural and religious ceremonies, acting as sacrifice and sustenance, while others have provided inspiration for legends and art.
It is little wonder then, that our language is filled with metaphors and idioms that draw on the perceived qualities of our four-legged, two-legged, multi-legged, and no-legged friends: Humans have been as busy as bees bringing animal imagery into language systems and will continue to do so until the cows come home.
Athurma, a Greek word meaning “toy that causes joy," was a common term for a pet in Ancient Greece. Socrates (469-399 BCE), the father of Western philosophy, asked his interlocutor Glaucon if he could truly bring himself to kill and eat an animal into whose eyes he had looked and seen himself reflected. However, today’s industrialization of food production and manufacture has obscured the origins of meat-based meals for the majority of consumers, while the relentless rise of intensive farming practices has resulted in the ill-treatment of animals on a global scale.
As one form of response, the increased awareness and use of animal-friendly idioms and phrases could help promote more animal-friendly lifestyles, offering linguistic and cognitive substitutes for what most people no longer do: look into the eyes of animals that will end up on our tables.
I suggest that animals need to be better appreciated as constitutive and contributory elements to society, and language is the means by which this understanding can be improved. Through more animal-friendly language, current and future generations could harness positive associations to increase the protection of animals.
Often the language used in our everyday life leans towards the vilification of animals; for example, in the world of finance, Goldman Sachs was famously described as a “great vampire squid” while other businesses with aggressive practices may be deemed “corporate sharks.” In reality, vampire squid do not feed on their own kind, and sharks play a vital role in maintaining the healthy balance of a natural ecosystem, which might not be said of venture capitalists.
Standards of animal welfare can be raised through increased education and awareness, and a kinder use of animal metaphors in everyday conversation can contribute to a more animal-friendly human existence. While there are examples of positive phrases, such as “strong as an ox” and “wise as an owl,” many more comparisons display a disparaging attitude, such as calling someone a rat, or a cow, or a toad. Even “man’s best friend” does not escape such barbs when a “dirty dog” can describe a person who is despicable or contemptible.
The octopus is arguably the smartest animal in the world per kilo and deserves a phrase that recognises this, while the reputation of pigs as dirty, greedy beasts is long overdue a re-evaluation. So often housed in cramped, mucky quarters by humans and forced to gain weight, pigs have been proven to be smarter than dogs with a preference for cleanliness when conditions allow. Perhaps fewer bacon sandwiches would be consumed if we all naturally referred to intelligent people as “smart as a pig.”
In this time when men play an increasing role in childcare, reflected by the growth in paternity leave, where are the phrases that invoke those animal examples of paternal instincts found in the seahorse and the penguin? Language evolves organically, but it might only take one large corporation to offer “seahorse leave” as part of their employee benefits for such a term to enter public consciousness.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have required their staff to work remotely and schools have swung between closing and opening, with more pupils than ever studying from home. These new social modes have caused a rise in feelings of isolation and loneliness, which have in turn contributed to a surge in pet-ownership during lockdown. This has had both positive and negative impacts on animal welfare; on the one hand, new pets have had almost constant human companionship, but on the other, the gradual return to work and schools has been followed by a proportional increase in pet abandonment, certainly in the UK and Europe.
Falling salaries and rising unemployment due to the economic effects of COVID-19 have affected huge numbers of people, with a subsequent detrimental effect on animal welfare as domestic priorities compete for reduced resources. Some governments are addressing this matter; Germany, for instance, is setting out new protective measures to legislate the minimum levels of care for dogs.
This is the kind of progress that will be easier for everyone to make if we already speak a language that has animal interests built-in. A more positive and complimentary language toward animals will increase our emotional response to them, as changes in language can alter the way we think and feel about things. In this way, material for classrooms is already being produced to promote animal-friendly language, such as PETA’s TeachKind initiative and their array of suggestions for new animal idioms.
Through early engagement in schools and at home, there is an opportunity to enhance the lives of animals and humans, as the ill-treatment of animals has a degrading effect on human psychology, too. By improving from an early age how we discuss animals and use their characteristics to describe each other, we can set out on a more beneficial path for all creatures on the earth, including humans.
