THE People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organisation has made a name for itself through headline-grabbing stunts and eye-catching advertising campaigns.
In 2015, PETA set its sights on the wool industry, using fake, bloody lambs in an attempt to portray shearing as a dangerous and cruel practice. The fact that wool is a natural, sustainable fibre was conveniently ignored. And for a group so focused on animal welfare, they seemed to have forgotten that shearing sheep is vital for maintaining good animal welfare.
Thankfully, farmers everywhere bandied together to show a more authentic image of the wool industry.
More recently, PETA has found a new target: the English language. More specifically, it has identified several common phrases it believes constitute ‘anti-animal language’.
Apparently, this phenomenon is such a serious problem that it even has a name – ‘speciesism’.
I’ve been too busy worrying about all the other ‘-isms’ affecting our society – things like terrorism, racism, sexism or ageism – that I’d never even realised ‘speciesism’ was happening all around us.
Five anti-animal phrases have made PETA’s hit list. If it had its way, we’d replace ‘kill two birds with one stone’ with ‘feed to birds with one scone’, and ‘beat a dead horse’ would become ‘feed a fed horse’.
In my opinion, PETA is carrying on like a pork chop about nothing. No one takes these ‘anti-animal’ phrases at their literal meaning, and their use is highly unlikely to encourage violence against animals. Instead, they are a reflection of the colloquial nature of language, a way to have fun and be irreverent in our everyday speech.
For example, I might be a proud croweater, but I’m not likely to be tucking into a crow stew for dinner anytime soon.
And while my job as editor helps me ‘bring home the bacon’, I’m hardly going to swap my wages for tasty pork products in the forseeable future.
Going back to the avian theme, we all have a mate who’s known to act like ‘flaming galah’ without setting any birds on fire.
And barring a few episodes of Border Security, no one wearing budgie smugglers is walking around with a bird in their swimwear.
So PETA, despite your best efforts to convince us ‘speciesism’ is a real problem, you can’t pull the wool over our eyes.
