I work with one of these people. She refuses to even say the word 'pet' to refer to an animal. Thinks there's no difference between animals and humans, animals have rights too, etc, etc. Of course, she's vegan as well.
side note: Does anyone else remember when Alan Colmes would vivisect vegetables on his radio show? He had the most appropriate foley setup for making it sound like he was torturing a hapless zucchini.