PETA does not advocate people not owning pets, although they do refer to them as "companion animals" and not pets. It's not that the PETA philosophy says that animals should be equal with human beings in that they should have the right to vote and the right to bear arms and all that stuff. The idea is that since human beings are animals (mammals) that other species should have the right to the same things we take forgranted - the right to be free of pain, the right to adequate food, water, and shelter, the right to appropriate medical care, the right to be respected as a living, sentient being, and the right to a dignified end.