These guys just don't stop. After winning a bogus cybersquatting case against Web parody meister Michael Doughney in mid June, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals now wants the Green Bay Packers football team to change its name.

The reason? In a letter to team president Bob Harlan, PETA said Monday that the name promotes violence and bloodshed. As it happens, the name "Packers" refers to one of Green Bay's famous industries -- meatpacking and slaughterhouses.

According to an Associated Press report, ever-helpful PETA was quick to provide the team with alternative monikers. PETA's vegetarian campaign coordinator, Bruce Friedrich, suggested the Green Bay "Pickers," in reference to fruit and veggie harvesting. Another possible nuevonym: the Green Bay "Six-Packers," so contrived for Wisconsin's prestigious brewing heritage.

The "Six-Packers" suggestion is curious considering the tuchas-kick delivered to PETA by Mother's Against Drunk Driving early this year in March for its admittedly funny "Got Beer?" parody campaign. Maybe the MADD folks need to boot PETA's other cheek.

Moving fast past the "activist" category, PETA is finding itself increasingly in the one marked "bully."

Any group associated with animals, for good or ill, had better watch its political and business backs, because the Naugahyde Nazis are foaming at the mouth with berserker rage and Hannibal-like determination to see our furry, feathery, scaly friends not only free from dinner plates and research labs, but also anything that reminds PETA pals of the fact.

The real question now is whether or not the Packers will blitz the line of skirmish and tackle PETA over this absurd demand.

"We like our name, our tradition," said Harlan in a reply to PETA. "We've been the Packers since 1919, and this is the first time anyone has suggested that we change our name."

While chances are next to nil that the Packers would ever change their jerseys to appease a group of alfalfa-grinding malcontents, any consideration to PETA's suggestion -- even something as simple as a "we understand and sympathize" statement -- is only sure to encourage the meat-is-murder mob to press on to all new heights of mind-boggling idiocy.

Next thing you know PETA will protest the National Football League and demand that pigskin footballs be punted off the field, leatherless shoes be shod by players, and animal mascots be liberated from the critter-mocking caricature roles they occupy.

The Packers need to stick to their cleavers and meat hooks on this one and treat it like running the ball. Take it up the sidelines and bowl over anyone in the way. With Michael Doughney's hopes smashed and McDonald's voice effectively on mute over PETA's McCruelty campaign, somebody needs to stick out a foot and trip PETA's four-legged race to demonize anything even remotely indicative of animal use.

If these guys get their way, we'll all end up wearing vinyl pants, eating textured vegetable protein for dinner, watching the Green Bay "Pickers" gently battling their way to the Super Bowl where tofu hotdogs will, no doubt, be served in the stands to fans adorned in polyester shorts and hemp hats (nothing silk, mind you; worm exploitation has gone far enough, you know).