stir up the animals

English

stir up the animals (third-person singular simple present stirs up the animals, present participle stirring up the animals, simple past and past participle stirred up the animals)

To cause public discontent or controversy.
- 2001, Richard P. Horwitz, The American Studies Anthology, page 50:
  He styled himself both a Prohibition-flouting "Baltimoron" and "an incurable snob," the voice of "the intelligent minority" determined "to stir up the animals."
- 2013, Rupert Wilkinson, Surviving a Japanese Internment Camp:
  The Japanese were often skittish about elections: they wanted to control who they got as top administrators and feared elections might stir up the animals.