stalwartcom / CC

Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's new book is hitting bookstores this week, and the advance word is that the lady who never saw a wolf, polar bear, or moose she wouldn't like to see ground up into burgers doesn't have many nice things to say about vegetarians. As was pointed out by PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in her open letter to Palin, the only surprise is that Palin's jibes are as yawn-inducing as a rerun of The Man Show.

One has to wonder if there is an original line in Sarah Palin's book, given her remarks in it about vegetarians. (She seems to believe that we only eat salad, but if she's keeping an eye on the New York Times bestseller list, she will spot two vegan cookbooks in the top five with barely a salad recipe in either of them.) The long-brandished rebuttal to Ms. Palin's filched quote "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?" is "I guess God also intended for humans to be cannibals then because we are also made out of 'meat.'" And as for the amazingly glib "I love animals—right next to the mashed potatoes," the first time I saw that slogan was a few decades before America was graced with Ms. Palin's public presence, when it was used interchangeably with "I love spotted owls: baked or fried."

Ms. Palin reportedly finds evolution a bit hard to swallow. Judging from her book, that applies to the evolution of ideas and attitudes as well.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

Posted by Alisa Mullins

farm2 / CC

Ah, the Palins. One endless reservoir of public mishaps and cavalier insensitivity toward animals. They provide all the cathartic benefits of reality TV, minus the guilt of feeling shallow, since it's on CNN.

Well, in an effort to help safeguard the innocence of youth against merciless animal slaughter, we've sent the newest addition to the Palin clan an adorable care package of compassionate goodies. Sarah's first grandchild Tripp will receive an assortment of cute animal-friendly kid gear, and his young mom Bristol will receive Ingrid's new book, One Can Make a Difference, as well as her classic 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals.

Seeing as the little guy probably won't be learning any empathetic values from his aerial-hunting grandparents, we're hoping our small effort will help light the way toward a more conscientious path. And with his pedigree, we think he'll need all the assistance he can get! Click here to read our full letter to Bristol Palin.

For those of you who are still too repulsed at the thought of this family's heartless ways to share in our goodwill toward them just yet, we've got something in our bag for you too. Trot on over to our latest holiday video game. In it you can hurl virtual snowballs at a certain bikini-clad, gun-toting maverick. Enjoy!

Posted by Missy Lane

This morning, PETA's Policy Department received a Scrooge-like phone call from someone purporting to be from Gov. Sarah Palin's office threatening legal action against us if we don't play ball—or, actually, stop playing ball. Why are Ms. Palin's peeps so mad at PETA? Well, if you've played our Holiday Snowball Fight game recently, you may know. The game asks players to pick up a virtual snowball and take aim at 2008's biggest animal foes, from Colonel Sanders to the Trollsen twins to Alaska's own Sarah Palin. But guess what, Sarah? We've checked with our legal team, and they say that it's "protected parody," or "fair game"—so the game stays! After all, we're throwing snowballs, not shoes.

In real life, the moose and other animals Ms. Palin blows to smithereens don't stand a chance. But, hey, our game is virtual and nonviolent. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why Sarah is so mad about the game anyways. Wielding a gun and decked out in a sexy bikini and pageant ribbon, I'd think she'd be quite proud of how PETA's portrayed her.

Though this game is just a bit of harmless payback, Palin's real-life hunting habit is no joke. Palin not only guns down big moose but also supports aerial hunting of wolves—she even proposed putting a bounty of $150 on their heads. Wolves aren't even overpopulated in Alaska. The sole reason for the bounty would be to boost the numbers of moose and elk so that hunters will have more living targets for their blood sport. Pathetic.

P.S. Governor Palin isn't the only fantastic figure in the game, so if you haven't had the chance to play, check it out!

Posted by Liz Graffeo

The moose-hunting, fur-wearing, pro-aerial-wolf-gunning governor is in the news again. On Thursday, Sarah Palin visited a turkey farm in Wasilla for the traditional pre-Thanksgiving turkey "pardoning." Now, most people probably don't think about exactly how the turkeys raised for Thanksgiving dinner every year meet their maker. But not to worry. Sarah has that under control. In this video, while responding to a reporter who asks about her post-election plans, Palin talks about how she wants to "promote a local business" and do something that won't "invite criticism." While turkeys are being slaughtered. Behind her. ON CAMERA.

Was that one of those "gotcha" questions, Sarah? Because it seems to me that showing the bloody reality of slaughter is just about the worst thing you could do to promote this business. Some people just won't want to eat turkey after watching—especially when this happened the day after PETA released new undercover video from the world's leading poultry-breeding facility. In that video, workers stomp on turkeys' heads, punch them, and bang their heads against metal scaffolding.

This is a country of people who love animals—in fact, numerous polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that farmed animals deserve protection from abuse. The more that people are confronted with the ways that animals who are raised for food suffer—from the moment they're born until the moment they're killed—the more that people will start thinking about giving vegetarian meals a try. And then the factory farming industry will need a bigger bailout than the "Big Three."

Posted by Dan Shannon

P.S.—Sarah Palin should take a cue from our own "President Bush," whose turkey-pardoning this year really was a "mission accomplished."