The activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a bone to pick with phrases it says are anti-animal.
But rather than beat a dead horse, PETA offered alternative more-animal-friendly phrases on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
For instance, PETA suggests saying “feed two birds with one scone” instead of “kill two birds with one stone” and “feed a fed horse” rather than “beat a dead horse.”
You can see other examples below:
Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it. Here’s how to remove speciesism from your daily conversations. pic.twitter.com/o67EbBA7H4
— PETA (@peta) December 4, 2018
In another tweet, PETA took the bull by the horns, er, “took the flower by the thorns” and explained its reasoning.
Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.
— PETA (@peta) December 4, 2018
As you might expect, the posts attracted lots of attention, including a few catty comments.
Raising awareness and teaching us new phrases? thats killing two birds with one stone right there.
— Tryzick (@Tryzick) December 5, 2018
So I’m supposed to grab a flower by the thorns? What about my fingers? Or what about the flowers feelings?
— Andrew Schlanser (@AndrewSchlanser) December 5, 2018
HuffPost reporter Nick Wing also addressed the elephant in the room, or actually the gorilla.
We should also address the 800-pound gorilla in the room who is the perfect weight because we don’t body shame here.
— Nick Wing (@nickpwing) December 4, 2018
And others piled on as well.
That dog won’t hunt.
— Jeffrey Carlson (@Carlsonjok) December 4, 2018
Pick your battles, PETA. There’s bigger fish to fry.
— Euan Purchase ⛄️ (@euanspc) December 4, 2018
“Take the flower by the thorns” sounds like some blatant anti-plantism to me. Which is just more speciesism. Shame on you.
— Jason Yarnell (@yaggleberryfinn) December 4, 2018
I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, sound too pig headed, but want to address the elephant in the room, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
— Mike (@mcaruso1) December 4, 2018
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