Sarah Palin fires back at PETA over controversial pet photo

Sarah Palin wants PETA to "chill" after the animal rights group blasted her for posting a photo of son Trig using the family dog as a step stool.

In a message posted on her Facebook page Saturday, the former Alaska governor fired back at PETA writing, "Chill. At least Trig didn't eat the dog."

Palin was responding to criticism she received two days earlier, after sharing a picture on Facebook of Trig, who is 6 and has Down syndrome, standing on pet pooch Jill to reach the kitchen sink.

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The former Republican vice presidential nominee captioned the photo: "Happy New Year! May 2015 see every stumbling block turned into a stepping stone on the path forward. Trig just reminded me. He, determined to help wash dishes with an oblivious mama not acknowledging his signs for "up!", found me and a lazy dog blocking his way. He made his stepping stone."

The photo garnered more than 70,000 likes and thousands of comments. While many commenters praised Palin, others cried animal abuse, including PETA.

"It's odd that anyone — let alone a mother—would find it appropriate to post such a thing, with no apparent sympathy for the dog in the photo," the group wrote Friday in a statement on its website. "Then again, PETA, along with everyone else, is used to the hard-hearted, seeming obliviousness of this bizarrely callous woman, who actually thought it appropriate to be filmed while turkeys were being slaughtered right behind her in full view of the camera."

In her lengthy weekend response, Palin accused PETA of hypocrisy and cited a photo posted by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" of a child using a dog as a step ladder; she also mentioned the group's response to President Obama's admission that he ate dog meat as a child in Indonesia.

"Did you get all wee-wee'd up when she posted this sweet picture?" Palin asked about Ellen. "Did you go as crazy when your heroic Man-of-Your-Lifetime, Barack Obama, revealed he actually enjoyed eating dead dog meat?"

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PETA shot back with a second statement, this time questioning Palin's knowledge of animal rights and geography.

"PETA simply believes that people shouldn't step on dogs, and judging by the reaction that we've seen to Sarah Palin's Instagram [sic] photo, we're far from alone in that belief," the statement said. "Palin's Facebook response shows us that she knows PETA about as well as she knows geography."