Skootzkitty's Litter Box of Stuff

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=4787701&page=
1

"These things are our family," Jones said. "We put everything into them that we have. They've given us everything they have. They put their life on the damn line, and she was glad to do it."

What got me is the last lines in this story. These THINGS?!  Wow, pretty dang impersonal aren't you Mr Jones? I never refer to my beasties who ARE part of my family as THINGS. They put their damn life on the line? She was a race horse - she wasn't in combat she was in a race. A Race that would have made YOU a pretty penny. Guess since she can't do that from the Rainbow Bridge, she is now just a thing.