Before I start this, I want to make clear that the views in this blog post are mine (Leathco) alone, and do not represent the opinion of Burgertime or the Retro Gaming Roundup hosts. Although with that said I'm pretty sure they'll agree with me.

PETA has recently launched a huge campaign against Nintendo called Mario Kills Tanooki. This campaign includes a flash game made by members of PETA. Their opinion is that, by wearing Tanooki suits acquired by taking a magic leaf, that Mario is promoting wearing fur here in the real world (you know, the place where magic leaves that let you don a Tanooki suit doesn't exist.) The flash game involves a skinless raccoon chasing Mario, who has apparently skinned it.

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Here's a quote from their website: Tanooki may be just a "suit" in Mario games, but in real life, tanooki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. Play Super Tanooki Skin 2D and help Tanooki reclaim his fur

I believe this is not stretching the line, but completely snapping the line. It takes a special breed of stupid to make a connection between the Tanooki suits in Mario 3D Land and the real life skinning of animals for their fur. So, I'm going to quote something from the writer of the Alphabet of Manliness, Maddox: For every animal you don't eat, I'm going to eat three. One for me, one for the one you didn't eat, and one to make it worse than if you had never opened your mouth in the first place.

For more information about the horrible practices that PETA promotes, I highly recommend you hunt down the episode of Penn and Tellers HBO show Bullshit that covers PETA and exposes them for what they really are. The episodes are available on DVD box sets and available for rent from Netflix, and is very informative.