PETA Calls Out Nintendo Over Inaccurate Portrayal Of Milking In 1-2-Switch

These are basically just publicity stunts for PETA. Sigh.

It's all a bit of fun

It's like the DVLA complaining that GTA doesn't portray accurate clutch control

I love the fact that milking is an activity that standard farmers do without those rack things and without taking away calfs or whatever.
Also, not milking a cow, as far as people who actually own cows told me, cause a lot of suffering for the cow itself.

Ok, PETA, I get it, humans are bad, animals are good but, as far as I remember, you are humans too, sooooo....

And then he discovered that all PETA members are just a group of human-like intelligent, wanting-to-conquer-the-world rabbits

OMG! They are so serious in that letter, it's just a game. The Nintendo Milking Challenge was just something fun on the side. Do they really expect Nintendo to do anything about it? This is udder-ly ridiculous.

@AlexOlney "Morning all, what can we blow out of proportion today?"

@Thexare Hit the nail right on the head. Not newsworthy, in my opinion.

@jswhitfield8 I assume it's magic mushrooms.

They've also claimed that milk is a symbol of white supremacy. NOT A JOKE
https://twitter.com/peta/status/847832116322639872

I'm a vegetarian and I hate these hippy idiots.

All I can do is laugh. This is just sad. I have read the email and it all says to me is "look at me, I need attention."

Now thinking back, their claims contradict themselves. Here they are complaining Nintendo are not stating the truth. But then they hated Assassin's Creed for being honest about the truth with hunting animals.

To me, that is very hypocritical and shows just how pathetic they are that they could not even get a consistency of what they want. They are little more than a bunch of divas who need their 5 minutes in the spotlight

Guys... April Fools was two days ago haha...

This is a joke, right?

PETA, this is the same PETA that kills animals given into their shelters because they don't want any "nasty" humans to have them

The same ones who think that baby sheep are killed to make wool.

Hundreds of years of farming and experience has made Milk Farming as painless and stress less for the Cows as possible

And besides THIS IS A GAME FFS what do they think it's gonna teach kids to do, stand in a field with their Joy Cons looking at a cow and shaking it trying to make milk come out?

also i have worked on a dairy farm and most of what they say is crap, at least for the one i worked at that is

April fools was yesterday PETA.

PETA is nothing more than a joke these days.

Milking mini game inside 1 2 Switch didn't show any cow to be harm. Just only "Moo" sound effect. Not an exploitation of cow either. If PETA take it so udderly serious about this issue, what about Cow & Chicken Cartoon Network ?

It was even nastier than Milking mini game (Ew...).

Oh, puh-lease. The only thing worse than these guys whining like this for blind publicity is that they're actually getting it too.

@Dakt
PETA can also sue Disney for Beauty & The Beast 2017 due to harming "Virtual Wolves" during the fighting scene between The Beast & Wolves, if they want. But I think it will Udderly Nonsense.

So... They're mad at Nintendo for showing the ethical side?

As rich from reviewtechUSA said, they probably do it to get attention and not so much as that they're against the game itself. Big causes and companies like PETA and anita sarkeesian do these things most of the time to get (negative) attention out of something populair just because they can, doesn't matter wether they stand behind their own statemant or not.

These people need to stop and re-evaluate their pathetic lives

Hey PETA, go drink bleach.

PETA just wants attention, and they pretty much got it this time. What other animal care organization would want animal abuse to be show on the screen of a kid's video game?

Frankly, it seems like PETA will just redact their claim and say that it's a joke in about a week or so, just like with the Mario Kills Tanooki stunt.

But the game doesn't even show the cow anyway. In fact all you see are two live actors who are thoroughly enjoying extracting milk from the unseen poor helpless cow and then expressing enjoyment over which of them punished the poor creature more.
See PETA, you've got exactly what you wanted. Now go away.

Man, wait till they see Breath of the Wild...

And people wonder why no one takes these self proclaimed animal rights activists serious anymore...

"Games are meant to be just one thing: fun, fun for everyone one." ~ Satoru Iwata

...well except PETA I guess.

While on some level they're seeking attention, PETA and it's followers are completely delusional about their cause and the 'good' they're doing.

They aren't pretending, what they're advising Nintendo to do are the very tactics they utilize.

PETA really likes using shock factor in their campaigns, they like to use scare tactics to bring people to their cause.

They're just a glorified cult.

Who funds these cretins.

Ai-ai-ai! That's not what kids think! They think they just squeeze the little tentacle things and milk comes out. Besides, they just FRICKIN' love to use Nintendo as a scape-goat for their idiocy. Do you expect me to believe that Mario is small enough to fit into an untarnished Raccoon skin?

Wait until Nintendo comes out with a PR statement, and then PETA retracts their claims as if they were joking this whole time.

This is Mario Kills Tanooki all over again.

Can I have a farming simulator game where instead of farming animals you farm humans in PETA outfits? The focus of the game being on running a slaughterhouse. Mini games in beheading them like chickens, snapping their necks like rabbits and varmints, and matching them into the slaughterhouse like pigs, cows, and sheep.

I think PETA would approve. And the rest of us can have schradenfreude out of it.

How about stfu PETA.

Yeah cos everybody wants to play an artificial insemination mini game. why stop at realism for one mini game I really want to see just exactly how the crying baby was made or the daily struggles of the clown learning to plate spin.

PETA always looking to milk the same issues. Hopefully Nintendo won't be too bullish on this one, otherwise it may turn sour.

This isn't news. Don't call it news. Don't give these trolls attention.

1-2-Switch is a video game. For fun. Not for being realistic. (But hey, it's a great belated April Fools joke!)

I had bacon and sausages for tea tonight

Im all for what PETA is asking for......... Next game nintendo i want to be milking a cow while it whales out painfully for its child, after all lets keep it real..... infact why not feature a RACK mini game.....................................

Because im sure if that ever came out PETA wouldnt batter an eyelid??? :S

This is so outlandish, I hate to believe that it's official.

In a radical turn of convictions, PeTA now accuses media companies of not being cruel enough to completely fictional animals.

Lol some companies really need to get a life

PETA is just plain horrible to begin with. It's fine to complain about cruelty to animals, but what about these PETA people that go through town fully nude in front of kids no less...that's apparently all right in their books?? Hmmm...maybe PETA just needs to get their heads out of the clouds and quit bothering everyone.

I get the point, but still... A little late for April's fool joke, no?

I don't think PETA understands how 1 2 Switch works, or the concept of minigames, Insemination would have to be it's own minigame separate from the milking game.

That said I find the concept of using HD ruble to simulative artificial insemination kind of awesome and funny. I say let PETA make it's own Switch game.

*Disclaimer:
No cows were harmed in the making of 1-2-Switch.

I suggest PETA keep putting pressure on government regulatory systems that can actually change these horrid practices in the industry and stop attacking a completely unrelated company. Seriously, we get you want attention, but sending off a letter like this still makes you out to be a jackass, and that's certainly counterproductive to getting a desire for change out there without making enemies doing it. Enemies that could have been allies.

@JLPick
nudity isn't sexually assault, yelling at children not to look at naked people for being naked is. but I see what your getting at.

I want PETA to just go away.

Wooowww... Most cows really don't care about being milked. I used to stay on a farm and they treated cows very humanely. Obviously I'm sure there's people out there who don't but they're obviously nothing to do with a milking game lol.

At this point, I trust that PETA's statements regarding animal's situations to be nuanced and objectual just as much as I trust that a nazi's statements regarding racial biology to be factual and correct.

I understand their argument. I support their right to express this argument. I am not upset.

See how easy that is?

@starman292 However, they care for their calves that are not allowed to drink the mother's milk and instead are slaughtered and eaten. Only for the purpose that grownups can drink milk like being a baby.

PETA has a good point and uses Nintendo for this purpose. Of course, we don't like this but it is still a good move. And everybody can see the difference between real cruelty and the family-friendly non-real Nintendo game.

@Darkwario1
LOL
The clouds will respond "Damn, Why did you yelled at me ?!"

@Zombie_Barioth
PETA is like Gaston from Beauty & The Beast. XD

Factory farming is definitely disgusting. I support PETA's underlying efforts but this does make them sound silly if you're predisposed against them.

I dont eat meat but I do drink milk, but we buy it from a local farm dairy in glass jugs, so the conditions for cows are far better than the massive milk producers.

B-but they recommended that Nintendo SWITCH what they were doing, lol.

They might be eco-terrorists, but they know a quality pun when they see it.

Sincerely,
Ingrid U. Shuddup

@Anti-Matter Especially when Cow shooting milk is obscured, because basically, an udder is a cow's PENIS! I'm surprised you don't see PETA calling out on Seth MacFarlane for the portrayal of the Cow who gets excited when milked, as mentioned by Petah Griffin.

But as for PETA's depictment on South Park, they REALLY went overboard on it: probably to the point of choosing between a douche and a turd sandwich, so that whenever a team insults you, using those terminologies, it means you get to say "THANK YOU!"

PETA are not doing themselves any favours, especially with their failed past stints e.g. Mario 3d World, Pokémon, Cooking Mama, etc. These are the people who fought to change the name of Hamburg to Veggieburg. Vegan culture has become a lot more noticed in modern times but like all things, there are people like this who take this sort of stuff to the extreme. And from what I have heard (not that I'm saying it is true) they themselves treat animals with incredible cruelty. As I can see from the comments above, milking is important for a cow, so what do PETA know? Nintendo have every right to ignore this, as they have done before.

PETA have a habit of things like this. Remember the Mario Tanooki suit stunt? They just hi-jack anything they can to push their message. It doesn't work for me though, PETA are such a joke it's hard to take them seriously which is a shame because animal cruelty is a subject that needs addressing. Just not in the way PETA do it.

PETA is a joke... There a hate group.

@KingOfTheFools Milking is only important for the cow since we killed the natural consumer of the mother's milk, its baby! (This is true for all mammals including humans) And don't forget: A cow gives only milk after a birth and just for a limited time. (This is true for all mammals including humans).

Renaming Hamburg into Veggieburg is clearly a joke. In some part even the thing above is a joke. Not a necessarily funny joke but a thing you shouldn't take literally.

I explain it again: This letter is not for the producers of 1-2-Switch but for us. We read it and discuss it. And then we have the discussion we need for a better world.

Anita Sarkeesian, and people who share her viewpoints, and PETA are very much alike; they're both trying too hard to find things to be offended about by video games.

@Chandlero As I said, they aren't helping themselves through this. Animal cruelty is a major issue in the world, I agree. When they go to such extents though, as PETA have, it doesn't help their public image at all - it appears that they are just trying to cause a stir (if that is so, I could, in theory, say we are all victims of it, and that they've succeeded there) but they probably aren't. Diversity is a common theme at this time, with many cultures and sub cultures becoming more noticed. But the way PETA are doing it doesn't help the image of them and many other vegans.
And the Veggieburg thing did happen - http://m.timesofindia.com/world/us/PETA-urges-Hamburg-to-change-name-to-Veggieburg/articleshow/44257241.cms

@KingOfTheFools The Hamburg-thing is still a joke... (I can't believe we are talking about Hamburg, New York...)

I live in "the dairy state" and have milked a cow personally and can attest that the cow does NOT show any outward signs of agony or distress when it is being milked, especially by hand.

You can argue that milking machines and such constitute cruelty, but to assert that Nintendo should show the cow being in pain or something due to being milked is absurd. It also does not hurt the mother cow when the calf nurses, which is effectively what you are simulating when the cow is being milked.

Or maybe PETA can just p*** *** and let us normal folk enjoy our lives in peace

PETA was actually somewhat relevant a decade ago but they're completely irrelevant now.

Honestly surprised they haven't "called out" BotW by now for its hunting. I guess 1-2 Switch's mini-games are more publicly advertised.

Got it: PETA wants to traumatise, not only children, but everyone who plays the game. A game which, can we add, does not harm animals in any way, shape or form. The allusion is based purely on a game centered on the imagination... Have they really sunk so low?

Not all cow milking is as horrible as what PETA is saying. I buy milk from a local farmer and the cows are treated humanely. Milking is not automatically evil, just because some people do it in an unethical manner.

And once again PETA, an association that should be of public interest, makes complete idiots of themselves.

...And yet, cows are milked relentlessly everyday PETA. So.... you go after a company that does an electronic representation, to which, no real cows were harmed in the production of this game, and yet, you do nothing to the farmers that do said act in real life? Um...?

Wait... April fools...? :/

Excuse me, I need to go to the store and pick up some more gallons of milk, just because they mentioned it.

@Chandlero

Why not take it out on those that are doing it then rather than Nintendo who have absolutely nothing to do with it lol. It's like me having a go at Microsoft word for representing a peice of paper on screen because I want to protest deforestation. It's literally making a point out of nothing lol

Factory farming is the substantive issue here. Animals being born, living, and dying in their own waste in pens where they can't move or lie down for the sake of cramming in more creatures beside them.

@starman292 PETA is going after the bad people. This Nintendo-thing is just a minor PR-campaign. And not a bad one: As you can see I am writing now in behalf of poor animals and see that even in the group of Nintendo fans there a lot of naive people.

And writing things like "I need to go to the store and pick up some more gallons of milk" shows that a lot of people don't understand the seriousness of this problem. We treat living beings like things and like trash. And in the same moment we are destroying our planet just for having bad meat on our plate.

Please don't give PETA any space. They are uninformed, obsessive and in some cases outright dangerous. NOT milking a cow is cruel to the cow. Mastitis is not something I would wish on my worst enemy, let alone a cow. This is the same bunch of idiots that think sheep are killed for their wool (I'm a spinner - I know how wool is grown) and think that releasing a bunch of mink into the wild, where they decimate the local wildlife, is "the right thing to do". PETA is not a reputable organisation, so please stop giving them airtime.

@DizziParadise You say PETA is uninformed and you really think that nature gave us a creature that had to be milked by human hands.. Like all mammals (including humans) the cow produces milk after giving birth for its baby. So only if we kill this baby, the cow will have too much milk and has to be milked.

In other news, video games are found to provide unrealistic portrayals of everything.

In this case, Nintendo is creating an unrealistic portrayal of classic subsistence-based farming milking. The calf wasn't taken away from the mother. The farmer took extra milk from the cow, and the cow continued to give milk after the calf was weaned. Nothing horrific going on there, nor in this portrayal.

Ah yes Peta, the group responsible for killing thousands of animals a year, spreading misinformation, using stars ignorant of the facts and often giving them false infomation, getting famous people naked(their only positive contribution to society) and oh yes they only care about cute animals.

They overshadow real animal rights groups and make the whole debate a joke. Horrible group of people.

It is possible to treat cows cruelly when milking them, but it's also possible to milk them in a manner that brings no suffering to the animal whatsoever. There's absolutely nothing wrong with milking a cow if they're milked properly and not milked in a mass production facility. That, of course, is terribly wrong and immoral, and milk should never be bought from a grocery store for that reason, but that's not even the type of milking that's portrayed in 1-2 Switch.

You can take an extreme example of any activity and say that because that extreme example causes suffering, that means all examples of that activity cause suffering. By PETA's logic, you could even argue that something as benign as a massage is immoral because someone took a jackhammer to someone's back and called it a massage, lol.

I bet that most PETA acolytes actually do consume some sort of animal products. Its very difficult to go vegan for many people. You pretty much need to have a properly varied farmer's market nearby, along with fair trade volcanic rice and other relatively rare things imported to an organic produce store.

In particular, a lack of naturally procured Vitamin B12, resulting from the vegan diet, will make your brain chemically and nervously break down if you don't get the right supplements. (That's probably what happened to a lot of PETA adherents ) You can substitute Omega fatty acids normally gained from fish oil using flax seeds/oil and the like, and you can substitute Astaxanthin gained from salmon using certain types of algae, but good luck finding the good stuff at a less than exorbitant price.

Another thing is, these PETA people are full of false equivalence. Just look at frickin' India. They have a whole culture based around letting cows roam free, and not eating them, but they partake of good dairy regularly. It is possible to give the cows something in exchange for something that was not originally meant for us humans (but does indeed have pro-biotic benefits if you're not lactose intolerant)- it's called a symbiotic relationship. Something the PETA folks have no concept of.

@DizziParadise LOL, killing sheep for their wool... Even though clothcrafters have sheared wool for thousands of years? There's no way whoever issued that statement could possibly be that dumb. They must have undergone some kind of mental breakdown or deficiency caused by screwing up their vegan diet plan... Or they have an ulterior motive.

What is right and what is wrong? What is the standard?

I was already under the impression that PETA had nothing better to do than try to jump onto popular things in the media and troll other companies but the fact that this article is penned by the PRESIDENT OF PETA outright confirms it.

@Chandlero
You generalize those on the opposing side as naive, yet at the same time you're spouting a rather ignorant and one-sided view of how dairy farms work yourself.

Not all or even most farms take the calf away and slaughter it. Separating the calf from the mother stresses out the mother, to the point of becoming unruly, and may not produce milk at all.

Even so, the cow produces more milk than the calf needs. Calves need 10% of their body weight, which is 1-2.5 gallons, while the cow produces 6-7 daily. They produce milk for about 610 days, with the calf being weaned by 7-8 months of age.

Its only factory farms that would treat their animals in such a way, and only the absolute worst because its completely counter-productive.

A happy, healthy cow not only produces better milk, they produce more of it. No matter how you look at it, that's a good thing.

And for the record, no PETA isn't completely ill-informed, they're incredibly biased and take the worst of the worst examples and apply it to everything. What they do is misrepresent facts and spread misinformation to garner support for their cause.

@Anti-Matter
No, they're even worse.

PETA are officially considered terrorists and the USDA, and are on the FBI watch list. So yeah, not exactly a credible source of information.

Idiots. The entire game is a Joy-Con tech demo, not a slaughter house.

PETA needs to die.

Rolls eyes...

PETA are ideologically driven, not fact driven. They have said so many lies that you cannot trust a single thing they say.

We need to get them to see this~ https://twitter.com/Sneakygemini/status/849177025919057920 I was bored... haha

Oh give me a break... is is a fun video game not a social commentary.

@PlywoodStick You would not believe the number of people who do truly believe that sheep are killed for their wool. Not so much in the UK, but a lot of my spinning friends in America get comments and arguments from such people all the time.

@Chandlero Your argument ignores the point that the cow is, largely, created by human beings by selective breeding. Cows have been selectively bred for thousands of years to produce much more milk than a calf requires. Whether that breeding was ethical or not is moot now. The point is that milking is not harmful or even painful to the cow. NOT milking the cow is and can lead to an excruciatingly painful death. There are some farms that have an automated process whereby the cow decides she wants milking, goes to the barn, and gets milked automatically, no humans required. If this was painful for the cow, do you think she would choose to do it? Google "Automatic Milking Systems" for more info on this. ETA - and the calves aren't killed. If they were, where would the next generation of cows come from?

Mhh they complain about this? But not a word on zeldA? Where we can and will kill animals with bomb arrows, freeze them, and then again put them on fire, ride them, then hit them, throw them down from cliffs, let villains beet the crapp out of them... But hey milking cows is a no go... Lol.

@DizziParadise Oh. Well, there's a certain subsection of Americans who are extremely gullible and very easily duped. And they're possibly mentally deficient- in a certain way. Not in the brain wiring way, but in the brainwashing way. So I won't blame them for their illness, I blame the parents.

"Can you imagine ?
PETA is accusing Nintendo for Milking games.
Nintendo, the victim of that Boorish, Brainless...

Madame PETA, Can't you just see it ?
Madame PETA, Their arrogance
UGH...!!!
No, Sir. No way. We guarantee it.
It just only a Nintendo Switch games.

We just want to play 1 2 Switch Milking games.
It just a Virtual Milking games.
And for once it might be great.
If PETA do understand.
There's no animal were harmed inside."

It's PETA. Their brains and common sense fled years ago. All I ever hear from these people is meaningless babble and since they damage a very good cause, it's best to laugh and ignore them.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

ROFLOL!!! Why did he stand so close? X'D

Maybe they should come up with their PR campaign instead of trying to piggy back off of Nintendo? Also, everything in moderation. PETA needs to chill out.

More PETA attention-grabbing by trying to leech off of Nintendo's press. Seriously, nothing to see here.

"PETA isn't a stranger when it comes to using Nintendo as a platform to gain recognition for its (very worthy) efforts to prevent the needless suffering of animals;"

Is it "very worthy" though?

PETA is such a joke.

That is all.

Complain to Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo strives for fun, not reality. Or better still write your own damn game that is a farm simulation showing your love for violence.