Despite being a family-friendly company with games that wouldn’t psychologically scar even the most humble of people, Nintendo can’t seem to catch a break with animal rights activist group PETA. After tangoing with the company in the past, PETA has issued a new protest letter over Mario Kart World for its inclusion of a cow as a playable character. It’s not specifically the cow, though, but the nose ring the cow has.
In a letter to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, PETA writes, “Nose rings are used by the meat and dairy industries to exploit, control, and even drag animals to their deaths. These brass rings are crudely stabbed through the sensitive septum of cows and bulls, which can cause lasting pain and discomfort. The dairy industry will also clip spiked nose rings on baby cows so that the comforting act of nursing from their mother causes her pain and the baby is rejected and kicked away.”
As you would expect, PETA is asking for Nintendo to redesign the cow so that it removes the nose ring. “Remove the nose ring and let Cow race freely,” the letter asks, “without any painful reminders of the industries that treat animals like profit-making machines.” Honestly, this is one of the more reasonable requests from PETA and is something I could see Nintendo abiding by. “Every animal is someone. So leave the rings to Sonic and let Cow breathe free!”
While we could go over the long history PETA has of not actually helping animals, I can at least see some logic here. I don’t think Nintendo was trying to imply anything by giving the cow a nose ring. It seemingly exists to distinguish the playable cow from the NPC ones featured in Moo Moo Meadows. It’s also an entirely fictional cow, which PETA always seems to forget with its letters. Either way, nothing is likely to come from this and PETA will probably continue doing its misleading thing.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
