Wednesday Afternoon Humor: PETA takes a step back, says the whole Mario Tanooki thing was a joke

Well this must be a first for PETA as they appear to actually be backing down a bit from their rather moronic move to launch a campaign against Mario and his ability to wear a Tanooki suit in his game. According to an email Kotuka has received from PETA, it was all just a tongue-in-cheek move to bring attention to the matter.

Granted this isn't really Android related but it's a nice follow up to our original article about this. It seems for once PETA may have bit off a bit more than they can chew when it comes to the way they try to bring their message across when they launched this Mario Kills Tanooki campaign which included some dumb down Flash game of a skinned Tanooki chasing after Mario who happens to be wearing the Tanooki's rather bloody pelt. The site dedicated to the campaign also said that Mario was sending a message to kids that is was ok to wear animal fur.

Nintendo did issue a response to the whole thing, a rather casual one I might add, that basically just said it's a video game, Mario wears a lot of suits out of fun and is in no way condoning wearing animal fur. It's a damn game. Of course that's not verbatim but that was the general message Nintendo responded with.

Now it seems all the media attention, all negative and making fun of PETA, has made the usually aggressive animal rights group a little uncomfortable, issuing a statement to Kotaku saying the entire thing, including the game, was a tongue-in-cheek move. It was a joke and meant to be a fun way to bring attention to the fact that the real Tanooki (basically raccoons) are being skinned for their fur. If that is their definition of fun then I would hate to see what their idea of excitement is.

Website Referenced: Kotaku