Mario's Raccoon Suit Enrages PETA 491
redletterdave writes "PETA believes Nintendo's iconic plumber Mario takes a 'pro fur' stance" because he 'wears the skin of a raccoon dog to give him special powers' in the new handheld game released Nov. 13. PETA illustrated its disgust with Nintendo in an online campaign called 'Mario Kills Tanooki.' The page includes a side-scrolling Super Mario-style game called 'Super Tanooki Skin 2D,' where you play an angry, skinless tanuki that must chase a bloody raccoon-pelt-wearing-Mario across a 16-bit world and try to reclaim its fur."
Same thing as violence against people in games (Score:5, Insightful)
They didn't have an issue 20 years ago ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Tanooki Mario is over 20 years old.
Why now ?
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
I really wish that PETA would change its top leadership. For some reason, they think that any publicity is good publicity. It isn't when the name of your organization has "Ethics" in it. I expect an organization that talks about the ethics of animal treatment to also have high ethical standards when it comes to debating the ethics of animal treatment. If they want to talk about Chinese fur farms, fine, then please talk about Chinese fur farms. Don't bring a videogame into the discussion where the main character dons a fucking costume of the animal in question.
It's stunts like these that turn me off of organizations in which I should theoretically have a great interest. Greenpeace, the same goes for you. I wish I would donate to more than three non-profits, but publicity stunts like these make it really hard to do so.
See? PETA serves a vital purpose (Score:5, Insightful)
They collect lots of idiots into conveniently concentrated groups, so we can efficiently ignore them all at once.
DON'T FEED THE TROLL!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
I think your comment applies to pretty much every organization that has been drifting toward extremism, both political and non-.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't be the only person in the world who it never occurred to that Mario was wearing actual fur, can I? I always assumed he was putting on a costume, not wrapping himself in actually animal parts. I mean, do they think he's crawling inside the dead husk of giant, man sized frogs as well?
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA: "By wearing tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. "
I remember playing Mario games when I was younger, and I did not get any hints or ideas that wearing fur was OK. This is completely ridiculous. With this logic, I should get the idea that eating red mushrooms will turn me into a giant. Or eating a flower will give me the ability to shoot bouncing fireballs at people (I wish!). Or that I should pull out turnips from the ground and throw them at people.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
They should go to China and stage a protest. Perhaps they could take tents and camp out in a park.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't be the only person in the world who it never occurred to that Mario was wearing actual fur, can I? I always assumed he was putting on a costume, not wrapping himself in actually animal parts. I mean, do they think he's crawling inside the dead husk of giant, man sized frogs as well?
It's actual fur in the same sense as Mario is an actual Italian from the Apennine peninsula
Most likely the the harm in the game is negligible compared to the harm of rampant anthropomorphisation - Tanuki is an animal which will bite, when cornered, not some happy, smiling little dude willing to share his skin with a plumber.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
I feel enlightened (Score:4, Insightful)
So the message is that something fun and lighthearted can be made from the skinning of live animals?
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
PETA is NOT a "pro-animal" group, they're an anti-human group. They've got a pretty good track record of showing themselves as having learned everything they know of animal behavior from cartoon animals, and who think that animals couldn't possibly ever actually like people, whether the animal in question is domestic or wild.
In fact, often, PETA has proven to be more inhumane to animals than animal exploiters, since at least the exploiters usually know how their charges behave, what their needs are, and what would happen if one simply opened all their cages.
Besides, who said a raccoon suit had to actually be made from a real raccoon? Ever heard of fake fur?
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:4, Insightful)
It looks just like a raccoon to me. The PETA site refers to it as a raccoon dog. What's the difference between a raccoon dog and a raccoon anyway? Skinning them alive does seem like a cruel process. I would much prefer that they skinned them once they were already dead. I can't really side against PETA, as much as I dislike them, on this.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:4, Insightful)
Skinning them alive does seem like a cruel process. I would much prefer that they skinned them once they were already dead. I can't really side against PETA, as much as I dislike them, on this.
Wait, I missed the part where they have footage of Mario skinning the tanooki alive.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:3, Insightful)
Umm, no it didnt. Sorry.
Re:The definition of a Tanuki. (Score:0, Insightful)
OOh! Good thing we have weaboo here still. I almost didn't get my daily dose of white Japanophile in the last HOUR of internet use.
Re:Conspiracy!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Never bet that there are not enough nut jobs.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So just wondering.... (Score:2, Insightful)
And a better question, has anyone told PETA about the furry community yet?
Occasionally they will ask the president of the Anthrocon convention whether the fursuits are made of real fur, and get a typically acerbic answer which unfortunately I cannot recall.
At the end of the day, someone who creates a cartoon character of a husky and dresses up as them is going to do that because they think huskies are neat, not because they secretly want to wear hunks of dead dog. Somehow, PETA seems unable to comprehend this.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
There are members of PETA who work hard to uncover and stop animal abuse such as the undercover steer abuse video. The leaders of PETA, especially their marketing team, are batshit crazy and I've never seen anything to contest that view. As far as responses people give about PETA, few, if any, of them are serious. When people see a statement from someone they view as batshit crazy, they either feel the need to offset the crazy (with their own form of crazy) or just find it fun to mock them. I think most people on /. are in category two. Though, who knows, we could hear a story next month of a /.er found in the middle of a sea of dead kittens and I'll have to eat my words.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:5, Insightful)
If they could care less about animals, that means they DO care about animals.
-Your friendly neighborhood grammar Nazi
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:4, Insightful)
What kind of animal allows another animal that's 1/10 of its weight to hop on its back and make it follow orders, with only a small whip to use for enforcement?
An Elephant, but if you push it too far it will crush you like a grape.
Re:More Specifically Aimed at Chinese Fur Farms (Score:4, Insightful)
Couple of things:
A) I'm a vegan for ethical reasons
B) I think PETA are a bunch of self-promoting idiots whose campaigns are more often than not counterproductive
C) The campaigns they had portraying women as pieces of meat are downright offensive, and have caused them to fall out with many organisations that would otherwise have been sympathetic to animal welfare. In particular a lot of women's rights organisations despise them for it.
D) If you think this campaign is something , read up about their uses of photography of Auschwitz victims. I kid you not, these people figured it was a good idea to use pictures of burning corpses fresh out of nazi gas chambers as part of a political campaign. Now even if you do think the way the meat industry treats animals is comparable to concentration camps, any remotely sober person ought to realize that a stunt like that is only going to stir up a lot of anger and hurt.