Poor Animals :-(

We have all heard a lot of cliches involving animals and birds. Diction using animals and birds occupy an important place in our conversations and communications. We use them to support our statements effectively; using them to convey our core feelings and the state of being. Different societies and culture value animals differently; when I say this each society has its own set of idioms and phrases to covey their meaning well. One another reason maybe the need for a terseness to convey what a man wants to convey in fewer words as possible, yet communicate the intent well.

There are few idioms and similes which use animals in a mistaken notion. I feel sad for these animals. I wonder what these poor animals would do if they had known law and justice :-P

Few of the similes:

as bald as a coot : A simile to describe someone who is bald headed.
Mind you, a coot is not bald. Poor coot, why bring the coot in here?

sick as a dog : There is no proven theory to state that dog get more sicker than other animals. Yet we use this term to refer someone who is very sick.

as drunk as a skunk : to refer someone who had drunk to falling down..The skunks don't imbibe. Yet the poor animal 's name comes in as it rhymes with "drunk"(Its an alliteration). But they do have a ability to excrete a strong, foul-smelling odor which they use as a defense mechanism.

as mean as a snake : How can meanness be attributed to snakes? What infamous character have they got to tag them "mean"?

deaf as an adder : to hint at someone who has problem in hearing. Well, yeah, snakes don't have eardrum, but they do perceive sound!

to drink like a fish : to mean someone who drinks a lot. Here again, a fish doesn't drink as humans do.

Now look at few of the metaphors here....

Black sheep.....
Dog eat dog.....
Rat race.....
A wolf in sheep's clothing.....
A lone wolf....
A spring chicken.....
Fat as a pig........

Imagine what must be going through that poor black sheep's mind? It would want to yell "RACISM!"; and the innocent dog - It would really wish to go pounce on the guy who is accusing it of cannibalism. And the rat!; come on! We all have heard of the race between the hare and the tortoise...where did the rat hop in from? The spring chicken - Is it a sin for the chicken to hatch itself out during the spring time of the year? The most annoying thing is about the pig. How cute they are, yet people accuse them as obese and fat!!! Unacceptable!

Image courtesy : http://th08.deviantart.com/fs5/150/i/2005/131/f/a/Crying____by_Hahnsel.jpg