When people hear a name like “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,” they may think it’s an organization of people who want animals to be treated ethically. They would be wrong, as renaming all fish “sea kittens” doesn’t have much to do with ethics.
But the group’s latest push may make their earlier efforts look downright sane. They want toymakers to stop making plastic figurines that appear to be wearing fur pelts.
Made of plastic:
From the mighty Leman Russ and Horus Lupercal to Chaos Warriors and the Sisters of Silence, Warhammer features an abundance of characters who wear what appear to be animal pelts, which just doesn’t add up.
The grimdark, battle-hardened warriors are known for their martial prowess — but wearing the skins of dead animals doesn’t take any skill.
Indeed, nothing on the bloody battlefields of Warhammer’s conflict-ravaged universe could match the terrible reality that foxes, minks, rabbits, and other living beings experience at the hands of the fur trade. Those killed for their fur typically first endure a bleak life inside a tiny, filthy wire cage before being electrocuted, drowned, or even skinned alive. Or they may be in the wild, minding their own business, when they get caught in a horrific bone-crushing steel-jaw trap — often languishing for days before eventually dying from starvation, dehydration, or blood loss.
PETA has written to Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree asking that the leading British miniature war-gaming brand ban “fur” garments from all Warhammer characters. While we appreciate that they are fictional, draping them in what looks like a replica of a dead animal sends the message that wearing fur is acceptable — when, in fact, it has no more place in 2017 than it would in the year 40,000.
Let’s first note that the toys in question belong to a genre called “wargaming,” and this particular game universe is called “Warhammer,” a place Realtor.com might describe as “conflict-ravaged” and “bloody.” If the figurines are wearing fur, it’s because fur is the only option for warmth when Earth is a shrapnel-covered hellscape.
“Horus! Lunch-hour is here, strip the captive’s leg-meat for — Dude, is that FUR??”
Extremists like PETA are not content with just shaming people who wear real fur, they simply want to control popular culture. Here, they shame the creatives behind fictional characters of a dark and distant future — a group of characters that may not be particularly “ethical” to begin with — for not shaping the culture properly.
This is yet another leftist group seeing people having fun with an activity they haven’t infected yet, and trying to weasel into their world with the expectation that further intrusions will follow.
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