Cruelty to animals, wild, domesticated or pets, though widespread, is condemned by most. A useful step towards achieving more humane treatment would be to stop using animal names in a derogatory context.
For example, politically correct spellcheckers could suggest changes from offensively used animal names to plant names. The sentence:"That pig-headed, bird-brained sonovabitch's catcalls and wolf whistles are so much doggone bull shit!" would replaced by:"That pine-headed, banana-brained sonovabuttercup's chestnutcalls and willow whistles are so much daisygone birch shit!"-- FarmerJohn, May 04 2002 Animal Bring-in http://www.halfbake...a/Animal_20Bring-inLove animals? Look at this [DesertFox, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Um, don't you mean "birch *sap*?"-- beauxeault, May 04 2002 I like the definition of political correctness I read recently: "the triumph of sensitivity over reason."
Somehow I want to say it was George Stephanopoulos who said that, but that can't be right.-- beauxeault, May 04 2002 "Banana-brain" is already in common use.
Plants have feelings too you know?-- ferret, May 04 2002 [ferret] its the ones that sulk for days that get my goat. whoops sorry.-- po, May 04 2002 Can I no longer have a goatee? What about my cowlick? May I still be ham-fisted? What will we use for the genitalia-related references? Are complementary terms still allowed (graceful as a gazell, quiet as a mouse, etc)?-- phoenix, May 04 2002 sick as a parrot? p, did you mean hamster-fisted?-- po, May 04 2002 I sure hope not.-- phoenix, May 04 2002 [phoenix]Ah yes, more positive terms!
I've heard said of vegetarians: they don't love animals, they hate plants.
Would horseradish become radishradish?-- FarmerJohn, May 05 2002 As a vegetarian, even I think this a bit extreme.-- MistressDeath, Sep 02 2002 Oh, all right, charges have been reduced to 2nd degree plantslaughter-- thumbwax, Sep 26 2002 In many ways i feel that calling a dog a human would be more insulting to the dog than calling a human a dog.-- MrKangaroo, Oct 17 2003 Interesting as I like cats, frogs, and obviously foxes and I don't like their names used in a derogatory way.
Croissant.
(However, I have never heard a phrase using frogs as a derogatory.)-- DesertFox, May 05 2004 random, halfbakery