How do you like your pronouns?

[IRescue452]

I notice this all the time on animal planet shows like animal cops and rescue shows: people calling girl animal "he" and boy animals "she" and sometimes calling one "he" one minute and then "she" the next. It drives me bonkers. I understand if you don't know the animal and can't see the underside. People call Autumn a "he" at the dog park all the time even after I got her a pink collar and I'm constantly correcting people. It just makes me think those people truely and unconsciously think of the animals as an "it". Regardless of the fact that they love animals and are rescuing them, their implicit attitudes are still that of "its an it". Thoughts? Poll doesn't matter I just didn't know where to put this.

[pomtzu]

It really doesn't bother me if people don't acknowledge my pets by their gender. Unless they hear an actual name that would give them a clue (such as Myndi), I wouldn't want them checking her undercarriage or lifting her tail just to be gender correct. As long as I (and the rest of the family) knows that Myndi is a she and Sparky is a he, then we're the only ones that matter.

[Karen]

I always have corrected people, but once I introduced her as Miss Hoppy, people usually understood she was a she!

[happylabs]

My Tinky is a girl. People are always calling her a boy - LOL. I do correct people. My mom is one that always has trouble with he and she. She frequently called Casey a he instead of a she.

It is funny because if we didn't know the gender of our pets, would we really be able to tell by the way they act.

[Freedom]

I correct people ALL the time. Makes me nutty, too.

Back when I was in school, we were taught all animals are "it." I never went along with that, even back then, and can remember arguing with my teacher that my dog was a SHE. (Spaying never came in to the discussion, we never got that far!)

In Latin based languages (French, Spanish, Italian) dogs are "he" and cats are "she." So depending on the person's background, that may be where the he / she comes from.

Mind you, with the Crew of 15, there ARE times I call one of the boys a "good girl," but that is totally different. Just a slip, and yeah I do correct myself!

Then there's the issue of when two of them have a spat. That is like my Mum calling her daughter (me, Sandra) and her son (Stephen) "Standra" lol! Said she was just covering ALL the bases, in case the one she THOUGHT was acting up wasn't really.

[Asiel]

I really don't care what people think about the gender of my dog. Sometimes she can act like a little man if she wants to get spunky . I never correct anyone but if they ask I will tell them the gender. As long as the family doesn't get her gender wrong all is good..