A spokesman for PETA has contacted IncGamers regarding the upcoming World of Warcraft “seal hunt” campaign, to clarify the goals and motivation behind the event.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has organised an in-game gathering where WoW players may join with PETA members to defeat a team of four baby seal killers. Misleading rumours of an in-game protest or demonstration has been spread on the internet, but PETA spokesman, Dan Shannon, got in touch with us to clear this up and explain what the organisation hopes to gain from the activity:
“PETA’s WoW “seal hunt” campaign is meant to be a fun and entertaining way to raise awareness about what is a very serious real-world issue–the slaughter of more than 338,000 baby harp seals which is taking place on the ice floes of Canada.
PETA chose WoW as one of many platforms to broadcast this message because we have many members and supporters who are also WoW gamers, and because the community-based nature of the game lends itself to discussion about these types of issues when they are entered into the community. We hope that once players hear about PETA’s WoW “seal hunt”, they will then take the next step to learn more about the real-world seal hunt, and what they can do to help stop it.”
WoW certainly isn’t innocent of its fair share of animal killing; The infamous hunter, Hemet Nesingwary, tasks players with killing hundreds of animals over the course of the game. However, the Warcraft version of PETA, ‘DHETA’ (Druids for the Humane and Ethical Treatment of Animals) offers players quests to fight the slaughter of creatures and take revenge on the hunters, while punishing players who kill any animals in the zone in which they are based. Later quests in WoW have players hunting for hooves, horns and meat again, so why should PETA chose WoW to host this event?
“PETA understands that WoW is a game and not real life. Just as fighting seal clubbers in WoW will of course not actually save any real-world baby seals, fighting mammoths and raptors in WoW does no real-world harm to animals. We believe that WoW players understand that there is a huge difference between battling mythical or extinct creatures in WoW and being cruel to real animals in real life.”
Unfortunately for PETA, the WoW community don’t seem to be getting into the spirit of the occasion. Comments on WoW’s official forum, such as “Too bad (the guild name) “Animals were harmed in the making of this guild” is too long. Is whisperwind pvp? Cuz corpse camping PETA would rock so hard.” and “Bunch of retards imo. “, fill one thread on the topic.
However, if you wish to take part in PETA’s WoW campaign, be in Howling Fjord on the US WhisperWind realm, Saturday, 11 April at 13:00 EST.
