Elliot Katz was apparently chagrined at the way activists on an animal rights mailing list were talk about issues related to pets and recently posted a short message asking them to clean up their act,

Hi, Would it be possible to ask the people and organizations posting on AR
News to put the word owner in quotation marks if they feel it necessary to
use it. thanks

Source:

AR-NEWS digest 1773. Elliot Katz, E-mail communication, July 25, 2001.