An apparently infertile Irish bull named Benjy didn’t impregnate any of the cows offered him, so he was set to go to the slaughterhouse (being largely useless for any other purpose). A veterinarian brought in to diagnose the situation said that Benjy was actually fertile, so that wasn’t the trouble. The problem became apparent when Benjy was more attracted to his replacement bull than he was to any of the cows. The problem was homosexuality.

But homosexuality is not allowed to be a problem, so a group of bleeding hearts got together to save Benjy, led by Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon:

“All animals have a dire destiny in the meat trade, but to kill this bull because he’s gay would’ve been a double tragedy,” Simon said in a statement. “It thrills me to help PETA and ARAN make Benjy’s fate a sanctuary rather than a sandwich.”

Oh, please. Yet another ridiculous waste of energy, emotion, and money. Benjy wasn’t slated for the slaughterhouse because he was gay. He was slated for the slaughterhouse because he was a useless bull. Because he was gay.

Benjy’s fate should make it very clear what homosexuality means in the animal world: death. An animal that won’t reproduce is an animal that has no genetic future. Speaking of which, how exactly does homosexuality get passed down in the genetic code, if it is in fact a normal genetic option, rather than an epigenetic or behavioral malfunction?

There are so many things wrong with this. When will we stop applying a more faithful human ethic to animals than we do to humans? Benjy the steer gets saved by a worldwide effort because he is apparently gay. And the thousands of dollars we spent to send Benjy to a sanctuary could have been used to benefit any number of starving or thirsty humans worldwide. Heck, we could have, probably should have, sent them a Benjy sandwich too.