PETA takes on Mario’s Tanooki suit

I am not going to lie, when Nintendo released Super Mario 3D Land three weeks ago, a little part of me squealed. The prospect of a new Mario game always excites me. There is something so nostalgic about leading a little, round, mustached plumber through a world populated by talking mushrooms and evil turtles.

Like any other game in the franchise, the objective is simple, jump through the course, avoid Piranha Plants and Goombas and grab the flagpole at the end before the time limit expires.

This installment in the Super Mario Bros. saga contains the usual standards — the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman — as well as some modern power-ups like the Propeller Box, first introduced in New Super Mario Bros. for Wii in 2009. As much as I love the classic (and new) power-ups, there is one that grabbed my attention — as well as the attention of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

First introduced in 1988's Super Mario Bros. 3, the Super Leaf gave Mario a tail and ears, as well as the ability to temporarily fly and whip enemies with his tail. In the new game, the Super Leaf combines two power-ups from the 1988 game, the Super Leaf and the Tanooki Suit, a variation of a raccoon. Both give Mario the same basic abilities, just a different appearance.

There was something fantastic in transforming Mario into a raccoon, let alone one that gave him ability to fly and turn into a statue. It did not matter that the Fire Flower could destroy more enemies or that Starman made you invincible. Tanooki Mario looked cooler. Unfortunately, PETA does not share my love of Mario's favorite raccoon suit. PETA stated online, "By wearing a Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it is OK to wear fur."

As part of the protest against Mario's Tanooki suit, PETA went as far as creating a parody game, titled, Super Tanooki Skin 2D, as well as providing a graphic video of the beating and skinning of Tanuki dogs in Japan.

I can appreciate PETA's game, to the extent that their Mario figure is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3. It is when I gave the background a second look — it has images of bloodied/skinned cartoon animals — and noticed that Mario is draped with a bloodied and flapping Tanooki skin, that I kind of lost it. The video of the skinning and beating of the animals was too much for me to handle.

PETA deserves some kudos for going as far as they did. The game is kind of entertaining at first, and the skinning video certainly proves the cruelty humans exert toward animals, but is it really necessary to use a children's video game as the vehicle for their concerns? I do not think it is, especially since the feature they are criticizing has been around for 23 years. PETA has been around for 31.

What about the other animals Mario has been able to transform into? Along with raccoons, Mario has been a frog, a penguin and a turtle. Don't these animals deserve a voice too? Wouldn't it be more painful for Mario to climb inside of a frog's body, instead of a raccoons? What about a penguin? I am pretty sure because a turtle's body is fused with its shell, it functions like skin. So I think transforming into a turtle is just as cruel.

What about the hundreds of thousands of Koopa Troopas that have been thrown, stomped on and killed throughout the Mario universe? They deserve a say. Mario's biggest enemy is a giant turtle. He rides around on a large dinosaur/lizard thing, and never really gives Yoshi a choice in matter.

Here is the real kicker: Mario obtains all of these skins in a perfectly ethical manner. He stomps, jumps on and hits his head on question mark blocks. And then power-ups fall from the sky, or appear out of thin air. If I recall correctly, there is no feature in any Mario game where you have to slaughter an animal to obtain its skin. If anything, we should check Mario for concussions, because he smashes a lot of blocks in each level. And his weapon of choice is his head.