#768 To be treated like Cattle

Today's phrase for ESL learners is to be treated like cattle. Also in the news: Bibby Stockholm Barge is criticised again. Queen Camilla promises not to buy animal fur. Assisted dying - do we care enough to change the law? Extract: Today's phrase is to be treated like cattle. To be treated like cattle. Now, first of all, I need to tell you what cattle is. It's a term that we use referring to cows, bulls, oxen and these types of animals which have horns and look like they come from the same family as cows and bulls. Now, we use this as a metaphor when we feel a group of people have been treated badly, for example, if you have a really bad train journey and you're on a crowded train standing for hours. And then you're thrown off the train and asked to get on another one, you're treated like cattle. Waiting to board the plane. If there's any kind of confusion around the boarding gates and you're asked to move again and again, as a group, You're treated like cattle. Now, those examples I've given you are fairly mundane. They're not really so important, but yet, today, in the news there's a rather disturbing story about Asylum Seekers who are being held on a barge just off the south coast of England. And two staff members have come forward to say, how they feel Asylum Seekers there are being treated like cattle.