Flogging a dead horse

"[1] The earliest instance cited in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1872, when The Globe newspaper, reporting the Prime Minister, William Gladstone's, futile efforts to defend the Ecclesiastical Courts and Registries Bill in the Commons, observed that he "might be said to have rehearsed that particularly lively operation known as flogging a dead horse".

In a 17th-century quote from a collection of documents owned by the late Earl of Oxford, Edward Harley,[2] Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then, playing, as it is said, for a dead horse, did, by happy fortune, recover it again.

In his book Old England and New Zealand, author Alfred Simmons gives a detailed explanation and background of the "Flogging the Dead Horse" ceremony, performed by a ship's crew at the end of the first month of their voyage at which time wages resumed.

One of the earliest synonyms may be found in an ancient Greek play by Sophocles, Antigone, Nay, allow the claim of the dead; stab not the fallen; what prowess is it to slay the slain anew?

PETA faced ridicule for the suggestion, such as from late night comedy hosts, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers.