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PETA Releases Pokémon Parody Game

The animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) released a Pokémon Black & Blue parody browser game on Monday. The website describes the game as follows: "For generations, Pokémon have suffered at the hands of their cruel trainers. Help PETA free Pikachu and his Pokémon friends as they struggle for Pokémon liberation!"

The browser game's website also contains a statement from PETA regarding its stance on the Pokémon video game and anime franchise. The statement is as follows:

Much like animals in the real world, Pokémon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments. The way that Pokémon are stuffed into pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods …if PETA existed in Unova, our motto would be: Pokémon are not ours to use or abuse. They exist for their own reasons. We believe that this is the message that should be sent to children.

Nintendo released the Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 video games in North America on Sunday.

In November 2011, PETA launched a "Mario Kills Tanooki" campaign. PETA asserted at that time that "in real life, tanuki 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." The group also launched a Flash-based Super Tanooki 2D Skin game. PETA later said that the campaign was "tongue-in-cheek" after Nintendo responded to the campaign.

[Via Forbes, Video Gamer]