An Animal Called "It"

Recently, I was looking back over some emails, one of which was from a staff member at an animal shelter I had volunteered at some time ago.  The email referenced a training which would be held in the coming weeks, a training that I attended and took away very valuable information from.  But, I also recalled being frustrated at something the trainer repeated several times - reference to a cat or a dog as "it".  This has quickly become not only a pet peeve but a source of increased frustration for me - whenever an animal is called "it" and especially when this comes from individuals who work with animals.  

When did it become acceptable, the norm if you will, to refer to a living, breathing being as an "it"? 

I'm sitting here at my desk, and I can identify numerous "its" - my computer, my phone, my lamp, my pen, my water bottle, the picture of the ocean on my bulletin board, the chair I'm sitting in.  You see where I'm going here, I imagine. Nowhere in that list would I include the bird chirping outside the window or my two girls at home, who like most cats at this time of day, are likely curled up together asleep somewhere. Nor would I include the animals at a shelter or the animals I see when I drive by local farms.

I have a journal in my desk drawer where I write quotes that I find inspirational or moving in some way.  I will often take the book out in the morning and find one that I connect with each day-I usually end up tweeting whichever quote that is as well.  There is one quote, I keep coming back to, keep wanting to post, but have been thwarted in my attempts by  140 characters or less:

"Can one regard a fellow creature as a property item, an investment, a piece of meat, an 'it' without degenerating into cruelty towards that creature?" Karen Davis, PhD

I don't know what it is in the human psyche that, at times, feels the need to be superior to such an extent as to deem a creature with a heart, eyes, limbs or fins an inanimate object?  Is it a defense that allows cruelty which is so commonplace to occur? If we view an animal as an it, then we can deny that he or she feels pain, we can justify our actions. 

Words have such power and I fear that we are sometimes too quick to use them, not thinking about what our words can mean. I believe that when we call an animal "it", we take away an identity, an ability to feel pain and joy, an ability to live life as a being, not as an object.  We wouldn't want that for ourselves, our friends and family - we shouldn't want nor allow this to happen to animals.