Okay Geek Farm
PETA is after Nintendo and Mario's Raccoon Suit wearing habits in 3D Land... seriously
Ricardo Trejo
Believe it or not, but PETA (the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) — who apparently have nothing else better to do — are going after one particular Italian plumber because he commandeers the skins of Tanuki’s and uses them to hover around his world that’s been overrun by turtles, Goomba-things, and bullets with faces on them. This is more than enough of a reason for PETA to get in Nintendo’s grill about the inclusion of the ol’ raccoon suit from the original Super Mario Bros. 3 into the newly released Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS.
PETA’s press release goes a little something like this:
NEW PETA GAME LAMPOONS SKIN-STEALING MARIO
Skinned Raccoon Dog Chases Down Tanooki Mario in Super Tanooki Skin 2D
Los Angeles — If PETA has its way, Mario has stolen his last tanuki skin. The mustachioed plumber is back to wearing tanuki fur (“tanuki” is the Japanese word for raccoon dogs), and now Tanooki is fighting back to reclaim what’s his in Super Tanooki Skin 2D, a new side-scrolling game from PETA. In the game, which is the center of PETA’s new “Mario Kills Tanooki” campaign, players direct a bloody, skinned raccoon dog as he chases a tanuki fur–suited Mario through a surreal fur farm where raccoon dogs are routinely skinned alive for their fur. Quick reflexes and jumping skills will allow Tanooki to capture Mario and reclaim his skin.
“Tanukis are real-life raccoon dogs who are beaten and, as PETA’s undercover exposés show, often skinned alive for their fur,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “This winter, everyone can give raccoon dogs and other fabulous animals a 1-UP by keeping our wardrobes fur-free.”
Tanooki may be just a “suit” in Mario games, but by wearing the skin of an animal, Mario is sending the message that it’s OK to wear fur. We created our game to help inform people that in real life, Mario would be wearing the skin of an animal who was beaten, strangled or electrocuted, and it wouldn’t give him any special powers other than the power of self-deception.
On fur farms in China—the world’s largest fur exporter—raccoon dogs are confined to row upon row of tiny wire cages that are exposed to the elements. Many of the animals go insane from the intensive confinement. A “Mario Kills Tanooki” video shows undercover video footage of raccoon dogs as workers drag them from cages and slam them repeatedly to the ground to kill them. Most of the animals don’t die right away, and some survive for as long as 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on a heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and look, blinking, into the camera.
For more information and to play the game, please visit PETA.org or click here.
I’m sure as kids, and even now as adults, none of us who grew up with Mario ever thought of him as him donning a fur coat. I mean, he doesn’t jump on a Tanuki and get his tail as a power-up. Nope, but rather he gets it after collecting special leaves. In a way you could say that he’s actually honoring animal kind by continually using their abilities in the name of saving his kingdom’s princess! Cause seriously, if he was really into skinning animals and wearing their shed coats what would the Frog suit say about our mustachio’d protagonist?
But PETA’s rant against Nintendo doesn’t stop there. They’ve even taken it a step further and made their own version of Mario’s Tanunki wearing adventure, dubbed “Mario Kills Tanooki” — which can be played HERE
