Petas new target is Pokemon
Peta has made a few games in their days criticizing things as McDonalds, the skin industry. and the general killing of animals for meat. Now it is time for Pokemon to take their turn. Peta is protesting against the release of Pokemon Black&White 2 which were recently realeased. This is not the first time they protest against a game. They made a game against the Tanooki suit in the Super Mario franchise. In an official press release they compare the Pokemon which are virtual beings to circus elephants:
[quote]”Much like animals in the real world, Pokémon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments. The way that Pokémon are stuffed into pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods”[/quote]
The argument is that Pokemon is teaching kids that animal captivity is okay, animal cruelty is okay and that kids will start treating their pets as Pokemon. It’s interesting to many if PETA even have seen the show at all. Considering the show’s and the games content many think of this as a bad April fools joke.
If you want to play the game for yourselves you can do so here.
[signoff1]
bleachorange
October 11, 2012 @ 12:25 pm
maybe they should tell time warner that enslaving road runners for the sake of faster internets is wrong. maybe we should stop worrying about the wolf eating little red riding hood. come on, this is just an idiotic organization. it seems no organization anymore can stand for something without putting everyone else down.
Sean
October 11, 2012 @ 8:32 pm
Pokemon is so outlandishly unrealistic that to make the argument that these games enforce the behavior of animal cruelty is just asinine.
Seriously, there’s a pokemon called CottonWing. It has cotton for wings. In what realm of imagination is that an analog to real life animals?
Sure intellectually fans and detractors of the pokemon series have long since acknowledged the literal interpretation of the show and franchise. But like Goku’s horrific abusive treatment of his son Gohan, it’s ignored because the fiction is so laughably unrealistic that parallels simply can’t be taken seriously.
Kelsey Miller
October 12, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Haven’t ever been uber into Pokemon, but from what I’ve seen in my youth, Ash and Pikachu seemed to have a very emotional, and I’d even hazard saying healthy, relationship. I understand reviling animal abuse and am even something of an advocate for standing against it, but here? I mean, PETA, are you sure you’re not reacting in a misguided fashion at least a liiiiittle tiny bit? What a waste of your funding…
Unless it turns out to be a rocking game. In that case, thanks! (Hey, you never know for sure… I’m trying to be the optimistic one here!)
Daniel Flatt
October 14, 2012 @ 1:50 pm
PETA pulled this crap with Mario and the Tanooki suit also. They are just lambasting whatever is popular at the time to get more eyes on their cause and to be relevant.
They seem more like trolls anymore than they do an organization.