the Horse latitudes where wages due and paid would prompt the horse to live again. One of the earliest synonyms may be found in an ancient Greek play by Sophocles, Antigone, Criticism and proposed replacement by PETA In 2018, the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigned for the general public to cease usage of the idiom, along with other idioms which mentioned animals, to "remove speciesism from daily conversation". As an alternative, PETA proposed that the general public replace "beating a dead horse" with "feeding a fed horse". PETA justified the replacement by claiming on Twitter that in the same way, "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 received criticism for its approach from the scientific community, as overfeeding a horse can incite colic, which is deadly to horses. More generally, PETA faced backlash for waging war against colloquialisms and the English language. Comedian Stephen Colbert on his late-night show commented that society has "bigger fish to fry" than to worry about these idioms, in a snub against PETA. Further reading References External links File:En-au-flog a dead horse.ogg English-language idioms Metaphors referring to horses