http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/14/8802690-peta-attacks-nintendo-over-fur-wearing-mario?GT1=43001

With the release of the new Mario game for the 3DS, PETA has released an advertisement attacking Mario, claiming that he kills innocent animals and wears their fur.

They are referring to the raccoon suit.

And apparently, they've even devised a game to have you play as the said helpless animal and try to get your fur back from Mario.

Seriously, why aren't these people all taken away to mental hospitals for mental evaluations?

Do you think Nintendo should sue PETA for possible defamation for likeness of their trademarked character?

PETA have always been morons XD but this is a new low.

I heard they were using quasi porn advertisements to try and gain support or something (Word of mouth, i don't have any links)

Yeah! They were going to do porn for some form of awareness, I don't remember what the heck it was. I just shook my head and moved on.

But now they are attacking my video game hero.

The line must be drawn here! They can go this far, and no farther!

herp a derp. I assume these people were not idiots/did not exsist a few years ago, when Mario III came out.

I bet they will have a problem with Castlevania's Soma Cruz wearing a fur coat, too

Have you seen the video on how real tanuki are treated? Oh that's right, you can't, because youtube pulled it for shocking and disturbing content. I don't agree with pulling Mario into this, but it's understandable they'd do something crazy to get attention, given how much these very nasty problems are ignored and perpetuated.

Case in point: I would have no idea what a tanuki was if they hadn't reached me through this action. Nothing will come from going after Mario, but now that I know what happens to these obscure raccon dog creatures I might share that knowledge with friends and family, who in turn may share it again. Not so moronic when you stop to think about how the underlying message could spread like HIV.

I think, like any normal group of people, they should laugh about it as a joke and not give it any more than 45 seconds of consideration.

Then they need to stop twisting things around like they do and deliver their message a different way. The only thing they manage to do is make themselves look foolish and make people dislike them all the more.

That's the problem. They're trying to get a message out, and in today's culture nobody cares about messages that aren't extreme.

It's not the decision I would have made, but we are(at least peripherally) talking about tanukis now, where we otherwise wouldn't be.

Relating it like that makes people want to ignore it more. At least, it does for me.

I'm sure that's true for many, but most ignore them anyway by default, so it's not like they're losing anything by going extreme.

The problem with PETA is they no longer serve much of a purpose. They essentially won their initial war (animal experimentation stuff - the serious mistreatment stuff), and the subsequent "real" issues (wearing real fur is pretty much frowned upon now), and now they have nothing to do.

And they need moar money, so they do stupid things like this.

Well that's certainly true, and likely why they're resorting to this clever marketing strategy.

That said, does anyone else find it hilariously ironic that PETA has made more games about torturing animals than any other group?

Here's an innuendo-laden story on some further silliness from PETA : Naked vegans target Prince Harry over meaty 12-incher.

PETA's attack on raccoon suit?
I'm surprised that they didn't even mess with Mario killing turtle yet XP

wow, really? That's.... uh.... great for PETA? I think they have overstayed their welcome. I wonder what they will do next. Speaking of which, weren't they supposed to do some sort of porn site or something? O-o

The question still stands; would we even be talking about PETA and their message if it wasn't way out there? There are plenty of reasonable animal rights causes that get zero media coverage. If it wasn't for my biology teacher, I wouldn't have a clue about the horrible things that go on in factory farming. It sucks that PETA is going about it this way but they would have absolutely zero exposure otherwise.

I actually donate fairly heavily to PETA. Pfhtphf.

Straight from the horse's mouth: http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2011/10/25/peta-sues-seaworld-for-violating-orcas-constitutional-rights.aspx

Basically, they sued SeaWorld because they said that orcas were being treated as slaves and that the 13th amendment was written broadly enough that it could include animals. (Also, I just realized that this is about 10 days from being a month old story, but someone brought it in as a current event today, so...)

That's actually an interesting argument. Not sure where to stand on that to be honest. Orcas, creatures used to complete 3-dimensional freedom, are being confined to the equivalent of a human cupboard when kept at a place like SeaWorld. At the same time, the people working there aren't particularly bad people, and those places are sanctuaries for orcas that are injured or otherwise unable to survive in the wild.

Anyone else think back Star Trek IV when they heard about this?