PETA says people should change daily ‘anti-animal’ language

By Laura Lira

“That just seems pointless to me. Killing two birds with one stone isn’t actually killing a bird. Not many people are going out and killing two birds with a stone.” That’s Steve, a Seneca Radio student. He disagrees with PETA’s tweet that urges people to stop using what it calls “anti-animal language” and replace old sayings with a more animal-friendly approach, like “feeding two birds with one scone”.

Not many people kill two birds with a stone, but a 2013 study says human-related activities kill 269 million birds across Canada every year. PETA says it’s about making language evolve along with “our understanding of social justice”. The organization has a list of old sayings and its suggested versions.

Shathu, another Seneca student, likes the idea. He says that would change the culture “slowly but surely”. Some other students have said they’re neutral and still don’t have an opinion about it.

One of PETA’s tweets caused controversy and received over 4,000 comments: it says that “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.” Sayings like “sold down the river” were originated during 19th-century United States, when “misbehaved” slaves were sold from the northern states to work in the lower regions of Mississippi, under harsher conditions. But the comparison didn’t sit well with some Twitter users.

You can watch PETA activist Hanh Nguyen’s lecture on the topic here.

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