Anxiously Engaged: PETA Hates Pokemon!

PETA depiction by sharkmon97X

When I heard about an online PETA Pokemon parody game, I laughed and thought it would be fun to check out. After all, PETA is the brunt of so many jokes out there, so it had to be interesting. To my surprise, I found out that this game was not a parody about PETA, but an anti-violence message actually created by PETA. I never expected PETA to protest against a children's game, but that's just what they did. This is the intro of the game in its exact words:

"As battling Pokemon grew in popularity, generations of children were growing up believing that Pokemon exist for no other reasons than to be used and abused by humans. Children learned about dominance instead of compassion. While Pokemon faced the worst abuses, children also started bullying each other. Until one Pokemon decided he'd had enough."

And as I started playing the game, my amusement turned to alarm. The Pikachu I played as was covered in blood and choked with a metal collar and chain.

Team Plasma is the PETA Pokemon liberation group, apparently.

The trainer I was rebelling against was also covered in blood and held a bloody baseball bat, and what appeared to be a beer bottle.

In the beginning of the game, I had to battle my Pokemon trainer for freedom. Some of my moves included "group hug" and "protest." In response, the trainer hit me with the baseball bat! So then I used some more traditional moves, like "thundershock" and "quick attack" (because apparently it's okay for the Pokemon to beat up their trainers, just not the other way around). Once I defeated the trainer, their equally abused Pokemon joined me, and we continued to battle just as disturbing trainers. One of the conversations went like this:

Trainer: "The only thing that matters to me is that I make a lot of money in the Pokemon industry."
Pikachu: "If you really cared about children, you'd want to teach them respect and compassion!"
Trainer: "It's not their hearts that concern me - it's their parents' wallets. Gotta catch 'em all. Ha! What suckers!"

By the time I was finished with the game, I had a Snivy that had been experimented on by a scientist, and a Oshawott that was partially skinned (shown below).

By the time I was finished playing the game, I was horrified. Not in myself, but in the disturbing depiction of my favorite video game I just witnessed. First of all, there has never been a speck of blood in the Pokemon games, and the amount of blood PETA used in their spoof game made me sick. And the violence! It's true, Pokemon battle each other in the real game, but their trainers never hurt them, physically or verbally. In fact, the Pokemon games and TV shows are all about the trainers loving and respecting their Pokemon. The bad guys are the ones rightfully shown abusing their Pokemon, but even so, never in the way that PETA depicted!

To top it all off, PETA included this little note below their spoof game:

"The amount of time that Pokémon spend stuffed in pokéballs is akin to how elephants are chained up in train carts, waiting to be let out to 'perform' in circuses. But the difference between real life and this fictional world full of organized animal fighting is that Pokémon games paint rosy pictures of things that are actually horrible."

As strange as it sounds, I am very attached to my little virtual creatures. In the game, we are a team, and I do whatever I can to help my Pokemon succeed. I think PETA's spoof game was not only disturbing, but insulting to all Pokemon fans out there. Below is a link if you are interested in playing the game for yourself. What do you think? Do PETA's accusations have merit? Share your thoughts in the comments. As for myself, I'm going to continue playing Pokemon and not be ashamed.