PETA's latest public target is Super Mario 3D Land, specifically Mario's use of the
tanooki suit, which PETA claim signify the wearing of a
tanuki skin. To raise awareness, PETA had a little flash game made:
Mario Kills Tanooki (warning: cartoon blood and gore), in which
you play a skinless Tanuki trying to get your skin back from Mario (YT, 1:19 - slightly stuttery gameplay video). But as
this Kotaku article points out, PETA's outrage is "an epic culture misunderstanding," overlooking the
long, cultural history of the shape-shifting trickster. Nintendo's quick response: "
Mario often takes the appearance of certain animals and objects in his games," that are "lighthearted and whimsical transformations."
PETA clarifies: the graphic little game was just a joke.
posted by filthy light thief
on Nov 17, 2011 -
67 comments
Back when
Super Meat Boy first came out, PETA made a parody game called
Super Tofu Boy, which sort of sucked hard.
Really hard. But the developers were amused, and so
they put a secret into the game, letting you play as Tofu Boy himself! Unfortunately, the anemic little man could only jump half as high as the titular character and was unable to run, making it seem absolutely impossible to use him in any capacity. He can't even complete
the very first level of the game.
And so, he was shelved as a joke character, and everyone forgot about him.
Or not.
{OTD}q has just released a video showing
almost every possible level possible to beat with Tofu Boy and set it to a killer soundtrack, pairing the popular fansong/remix
"The Power of Meat" with
a lovely mix of
everyone's favorite band.
posted by flatluigi
on Mar 26, 2011 -
73 comments
Before he went to prison for dogfighting, Michael Vick trained his pit bulls at a 4,600-sq-ft house on 15 acres in Surry, Virginia. Earlier this year, local tax rolls valued the property at $747,000, but Vick hurriedly
sold the house to real estate developer Ray Todd on the cheap, to aid his mounting financial troubles. Todd had hoped to resell the house for $1M at a December auction, and dozens of rubberneckers toured the property -- to gawk at the syringes left on the ground, the twenty kennels
"like prison cells", and the outbuildings where the dogs were fought. Naturally,
no one was buying. Still, Todd wants to recoup his investment, so he’s turning to a conventional sale this month… and failing
that, is considering building (unbelievably)
a bed-and-breakfast where pets are welcome.
Enter
The Vick House project: a Dallas charity called Jalie’s Butterflies is hoping to raise enough money online to buy the house and convert it to a non-profit animal shelter, under guidance of the SPCA.
[more inside]
posted by pineapple
on Jan 20, 2008 -
27 comments
Fishing Hurts is a new website from PETA aimed at getting people to stop fishing.
No one would consider doing to a dog what some so casually do to fish—trick them into impaling themselves in the mouth and pull them into an environment where they can't breathe. But the fact is—fish feel pain just as all animals do. When it comes to feelings, a child is a dog is a fish.
posted by billysumday
on Mar 12, 2007 -
207 comments
Dobson vs. the miniature Dachshund : the musical ( subtitle : "The Will To Whip" ) OK, it's not really a musical. But it
should be : in a slice 'o life piece of high camp from "Focus on the Family" head and author of numerous books on parenting, including "Dare to Discipline" and "
The New Dare To Discipline", Dr. James Dobson recounts an epic battle, belt in hand, to dislodge his 12 lb Dachshund from atop a fuzzy toilet seat cover. Dobson also advocates the disciplinary beating of chidren, but not those younger than 15 months. The Dachshund has sinced passed away,
ending "a fifteen-year-love affair between man and dog".
posted by troutfishing
on Oct 8, 2005 -
82 comments
Running of the naked bull-equivalents? (warning - NSFW, maybe - pic of naked female buttocks) Wouldn't this PETA protest, over bullfight cruelty, be more directly analogous to the "Running of the Bulls" if the naked runners were to be chased by a herd of meat eaters, on motor scooters, armed with stun guns?
posted by troutfishing
on Jul 8, 2004 -
25 comments
That most peculiar of spectacles the
Fiesta de san Fermín (Running of the Bulls) seems to still exist and will be going ahead tomorrow. The event is held in parallel with
Feria del Toro (the Bullfighting Fair); the run itself seems to be in the interests of transporting the bulls to the fair while getting them good and
angry, confused, scared and weakened in the process. Being that the event is in honor of
Saint Fermín, when the
San Fermín church strikes 8am, the bulls are released and the runners get underway, trying to avoid them on their
just under 1km trip. On arrival at the Plaza del Toro (Bullring) they are herded into corrals and later released so the crowd can watch the matadors kill them in traditional bullfighting fashion
[wmv: 380k | 150k | 56k]. Of course, many people are
not really so keen on this event; and it seems
PETA will be holding one of their typically
daft protests.
Can't people just
throw tomatoes at each other or something?
posted by ed\26h
on Jul 6, 2004 -
6 comments
The PETA sinks to a new low. This time drawing parallels between the gruesome
Pickton murders and the the slaughter of pigs for meat. Many of the human remains of Pickton's victims are still being found at the Pickton pig farm.
They were drugged and dragged across the room... Their struggles and cries went unanswered... They were slaughtered and their heads sawed off... Their body parts were refrigerated... Their bones were discarded.
posted by PWA_BadBoy
on Apr 7, 2004 -
154 comments
Those crazy PETA kids, well, now they've gone and done it. They've admitted that being a vegan is punishment, by sending a letter to the NY Prison Commissioner telling him that "Feeding inmates exclusively vegan food sends a message to inmates and the public that our society isn't molly-coddling them..." Funny, funny PETA people, hoisted by their own celery stick, as it were. I'm guessing that being that anemic makes them a little short on irony.
posted by dejah420
on Feb 24, 2003 -
32 comments
The city of Enoch, Utah, population 3467, has an annual animal-control budget of $25,000. A budget this small means that Enoch's Animal Control must display some creativity when it comes to dealing with the problem of stray or unwanted animals. Mark Havnes of the
Salt Lake Tribune describes
Enoch's solution:
"No sterile lethal injections here. No pressurized bottles of toxic gas. Enoch attaches a hose to the back of a city-owned Dodge pickup and funnels lethal carbon monoxide into a shedlike death chamber. The unwanted, unadoptable critters then are placed inside...'We have no trouble sleeping at night,' says...the city's part-time animal-control officer... 'We can't see a darn thing wrong with what we are doing."
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Jul 14, 2002 -
4 comments
PETA Protests "Packers." The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written a letter to the principal of Austin (Minnesota) High School, demanding that he change the school's "offensive" nickname ("Packers" is short for "Meatpackers," and the school is so named because Austin is the headquarters for Hormel Foods). PETA's suggested alternative? "Pickers," which would "promote a healthier, plant-based diet." No word yet on a response to that proposal from PETV (People for the Ethical Treatment of Vegetation).
posted by pardonyou?
on May 10, 2002 -
43 comments
I guess it trumps dying a horrible death (but not by much) ... "A young calf has his belly shaved. Many slashes are made in the skin. A prior batch of smallpox vaccine is dropped into the slashes and allowed to fester over a period of days. During this period of time, the calf stands in a head stall so that he can’t lick his belly. The calf is led out of the stock to a table where he is strapped down. His belly scabs and pus are scraped off and ground into a powder. The powder is the next batch of smallpox vaccine."
(Excerpt from Vaccines : A Second Opinion, and link swiped wholesale from Randomwalks.)
posted by crunchland
on Apr 10, 2002 -
34 comments
Yeah, we all know that
PETA is pretty loopy. Well ok, that's unfair. I meant to say we, the thinking, know that PETA....
Seriously tho, even tho I'm not into PETA, and I don't agree with a lot of what they do, I think one of their latest ideas, the concept of
taxing meat is such a good idea. I mean why not? Meat's about as healthy as cigarettes, coffee, and beer, and those products are taxed. Mostly, I'd like to see some money come in to balance out the money spent to fix the damage created by the Meat Industry. [
digitalbutterfly.net]
posted by jcterminal
on Mar 10, 2002 -
97 comments
How long before all animal rights groups go from extremist, to being classified as Terrorist groups? Are they acting on behalf of animals, or just acting like animals? And how long before their methods and actions become downright un-American?
One of
PeTA's favourite punching bags,
Ringling Bros., has started hitting back. Coming after a win in the
recent court case involving trainer Mark Gebel, Kenneth Feld, Chairman and Producer of Ringling Bros., issues an
open letter to animal rights groups in an attempt to appeal to them to stop attacking what he says are responsible animal care providers. In it, he alledges some of PeTA's own cruelty, as well as making the connection to the
Animal Liberation Front, which is classifed as a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI (see opening link).
PeTA isn't backing down and has just launched their
latest campaign against Ringling Bros. which cites cruelties no more recent than 1999.
I was also surprised to hear about companies finding it easier to
buy off activists by donating money, which just continues to allow them to flourish. Is it time to start ignoring the good intentions of these groups and really scrutinizing their actions? Should animal rights groups which engage in and support extremist/terrorist activities be shut down and broken up by governments? How far is too far when it comes to activism?
posted by mikhail
on Jan 15, 2002 -
45 comments
Mean Greenies I realize MeFi sometimes seems like PetaFilter these days, but
this new ad campaign [pdf] from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals struck me as sufficently odd to merit discussion. Long story short: it's a big, expensive ad urging you
not to donate money. [more]
posted by Shadowkeeper
on Dec 31, 2001 -
62 comments
