Sarah Palin To PETA: Chill Out

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin responded to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- or PETA -- after triggering a social media firestorm. On New Year's Day, she posted pictures of her son Trig standing on the family dog so he could help out with the dishes. Thousands of netizens, along with PETA, chimed in and slammed Palin for the images. However, the Alaska native has a message for her critics: chill out.

The politician took to her Facebook page Saturday and called the group hypocritical. “Aren’t you the double-standard radicals always opposing Alaska’s Iditarod -- the Last Great Race honoring dogs who are born to run in wide open spaces while some of your pets ‘thrive’ in a concrete jungle where they’re allowed outdoors to breathe and pee maybe once a day?”

She also mentioned Trig, 6, didn’t eat dog meat, a dig at the current commander-in-chief who wrote in the memoir "Dreams From My Father" that he ate dog meat in Indonesia, Politico noted. She also took a jab at Ellen DeGeneres who once posted a picture of a child standing on a dog.

Toward the end of her post, she said they actually agree on the same thing: “respecting God’s creation and critters.” Palin added their family dog Jill is “a precious part of our world.”

The post garnered more 144,000 likes and was shared more than 19,000 times. Most of the 21,000 comments on the post egged Palin on and agreed with her. “Well Said Mrs Palin,” one FB user wrote. “Get em Mama!!” another added.

Her snarky response came after PETA said people should not stand on dogs. "PETA simply believes that people shouldn’t step on dogs, and judging by the reaction that we’ve seen to Sarah Palin’s Instagram photo, we’re far from alone in that belief. Palin’s Facebook response shows us that she knows PETA about as well as she knows geography,” part of the message from the animal rights group said.

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