Palin vs. PETA

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To round out this week’s Palin-tastic coverage, a note on her latest foe. The PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) crew objected to the most recent episode of her reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska. In a statement issued this week, VP Dan Mathews said this about Palin’s caribou hunting, which PETA called “Sarah Palin’s Deadly Bid for Attention”:

“Sarah seems to think that resorting to violence and blood and guts may lure people into watching her boring show. But the ratings remain as dead as the poor animals she shoots.”

Sassiness points may have been achieved (me-YOW!), but the attack is pretty flimsy. The debut of her show set a record for TLC viewership. Ratings took a fall and then bounced back somewhat during the following weeks, but that still hasn’t quite put Alaska at “dead” on the TV scale. (And there are certainly some timing issues, if Mathews is indeed suggesting that this is a ploy to combat bad ratings, as he implies: The show finished filming at least a month ago.) In terms of PETA’s more central objection, Palin had beaten them to the punch with her retort, dished out Dec. 5 on her Facebook page:

“Tonight’s hunting episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska “controversial”? Really? Unless you’ve never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather couch or eaten a piece of meat, save your condemnation of tonight’s episode. I remain proudly intolerant of anti-hunting hypocrisy. :)”

PETA picking a fight with someone certainly isn’t new. That said, knowing Palin’s uncanny ability to turn attacks/weaknesses/note-taking controversies into strengths, they’re likely only making this particular foe more adored by her fans.