PETA President’s Response to Sarah Palin’s Book
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
Written by Alisa Mullins