HAPPY EASTER! from PETA

The critter lovers at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have generated a lot of free press over the years by keeping their outrage detector set to "hair trigger."

But the pressure group is taking a surprisingly mellow stance on the Explorers Club's annual dinner, where the bushwhacking society's members gather to snack on such exotic fare as braised kangaroo leg, Asian-glazed raccoon, and brandy-spiced Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

Asked about the March 17 event, a PETA spokesman responded with the e-mail equivalent of a shrug: "If they want to eat a few maggots and spiders, it's certainly better from an animal welfare standpoint than eating chickens—who have their wings and legs broken, their throats slit, and are scalded to death while still conscious." (He also suggested the explorers check out GoVeg.com "to find exotic recipes that don't include slaughtered animals.")

Can this be the same group that likened poultry farms to Nazi concentration camps, accused Rudy Giuliani of bringing on his own prostate cancer by drinking milk, and lobbied Fishkill, New York, to change its name (which is Dutch and has nothing to do with killing fish) to "Fishsave"?