No matter how strange things get, there is always solace in knowing that there is only one San Francisco. City officials were urged last week to adopt the term "pet guardian'' instead of "pet owner" as part of the emancipation of animals from their human overlords.
Veterinarian Elliot Katz, speaking before the city's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare, specifically compared the term change to the struggle to end human slavery as well as the women's suffrage movement. "The idea of women 'ownership' and black 'ownership' and pet 'ownership.' There's continuity here. Now is the time to get rid of this concept of 'pet ownership,' '' Katz said. Katz was silent on when animals would get the right to vote and hold elective office. But the fact that city officials didn't laugh Katz out of the room suggests animals might be an improvement.
