I truly can’t decide if PETA do these kinds of things because they think if they ask about a truly stupid thing in a popular property, it’ll at least get a conversation? Because if not, I just don’t understand how they believe these kinds of requests are the right ones to be putting energy into.
I’m a person who’s certainly for the ethical treatment of animals – and even standards for animals meant for food production to at least avoid needless suffering/cruelty. But as someone who would – theoretically – be on their side, when they choose to “champion” things like this or the cow milking game in 1-2 Switch, I just feel like they are undermining their cause & messaging.
This is a little flourish on a cow in a fantasy world where it is so different to an Earth cow as to make any attempted parallels nearly meaningless: this entity can drive vehicles and compete with other intelligent beings. If the cow didn’t want a nose ring, clearly it has the mental faculties & means to remove it. Given that, it’s not unfair to assume the cow decided of its own volition to wear it in the 1st place. Not that this dumb point even needs being made.
The real issue is if they focus on these effectively non-issues, then it makes them look out of touch. Unreasonable. Scattered. Efforts misplaced. It makes any other “real” concern they would want to fight for weaker by association. If I tell you there’s an emergency every time I stub my toe, you’re probably not going to take me seriously the next time I’m shouting emergency, but this time the building is on fire.
Stick to protesting the fires. We don’t need to hear about the injustices of a toe stub. There are simply far too many other MASSIVE things going on in the world. If any attention is left to spare for animal welfare, make sure what you’re bringing to the public’s attention is valuable enough to warrant it. I will spare a few bucks or some free time if there’s true animal suffering. But I might not be listening the next time aid is called upon; I’ll be wondering if it’s a stubbed toe, and if the toe actually belongs to a cartoon. Expending your energy on these “issues” is borderline disrespectful while real, human suffering is happening every single day on a scale most haven’t experienced in their lifetimes.
Pick. Your. Battles.
