Glorifying Breeding and Selling Caged Animals Sends Gamers the Wrong Message, Says Group
For Immediate Release:
September 14, 2011
Contact:
Kristin Richards 202-483-7382
Today, PETA sent a letter to Suli Ali, cofounder and CEO of TinyCo, the creator and marketer of Tiny Zoo—a game for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch wherein players build a zoo full of animals—urging him to make the next version of the game about rescued animals who find peace and fulfillment at a spacious sanctuary.
In the letter, PETA points out that confining wildlife in cages and other small enclosures is cruel and that encouraging players—many of whom are impressionable young children—to breed and sell animals sends the wrong message to them that animals are simply commodities whose needs aren't important.
"The animals in Tiny Zoo might just be digital images on a screen, but the callous attitudes that keep freedom-loving animals behind bars are all too real," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Making the game about a sanctuary would allow players to have fun while also feeling a real sense of satisfaction for rescuing animals who have known only deprivation and loneliness."
This isn't PETA's first foray into the world of gaming. Last year, the group convinced Zynga Game Network to remove chained pit bulls as "weapons" from its Facebook game Mafia Wars. PETA has also produced its own online parodies of the Cooking Mama series and Super Meat Boy.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to
TinyCo cofounder and CEO Suli Ali follows.
September 14, 2011
Suli Ali
Cofounder and Chief Executive
Officer
TinyCo
Via e-mail:
Dear Mr. Ali:
On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization, which has more than 2 million members and supporters, I'm writing to ask if, for the next version of Tiny Zoo, you would consider changing course and instead feature formerly captive, abused animals living out their lives in a spacious sanctuary instead of a zoo. Players of the new game could rescue animals, relocate them to the sanctuary, and oversee their rehabilitation. As a play on the name "Tiny Zoo" (to elephants, lions, tigers, bears, great apes, and other animals, all zoos are tiny), you could call it "Big Sanctuary."
Although no real animals are harmed by Tiny Zoo, it sends the message that life for animals in actual zoos is acceptable when, in reality, captive animals suffer immensely. Animals in zoos are treated as mere commodities; they are regularly bought, sold, borrowed, and traded without any regard for established relationships. The physical and mental frustrations of captivity often lead to abnormal, neurotic, and self-destructive behavior, such as incessant pacing, swaying, head-bobbing, bar-biting, and self-mutilation.
You may be interested to know that despite PETA's objections to zoos, we try to work with them to improve conditions for animals. Recently, for example, after more than a decade of urging zoos to switch to an elephant management method called "protected contact," which virtually eliminates injuries to humans and elephants, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums announced that it will prohibit keepers and elephants from sharing the same physical space, with some limited exceptions.
Please let me know that the next version of your game will feature a sanctuary that strives to meet all the animals' needs and not a zoo that subjects animals to cruel treatment and prison-like captivity. PETA has worked with sanctuaries around the world and would be happy to assist you in developing the new game.
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President