In San Francisco (and some may say only in San Francisco), activists urged the city's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare to adopt the term "pet guardian" instead of "pet owner." Veterinarian Elliot Katz compared the shift in terminology 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.

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