Twitteratti had a field day on Tuesday when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) tweeted terming that particular animal-based idioms are homophobic and racist. The animal rights group claimed that idioms like 'beating a dead horse' or 'catching a bull by the horns' promote cruelty towards animals in a certain way and suggested replacing these terms with neutral statements.

Suggesting idioms like 'flogging/beating a dead horse' and 'catching a bull by the horns', PETA said that these terms can be replaced with "feeding the fed horse" and "catching a flower by the thorns" respectively in order to avoid "Specism"- a term which the organisation call it for using phrases and language targetting race, gender and special needs.