Super Mario Draws PETA Ire Over Tanooki Suit

By B. McPherson


The new Super Mario 3D game by Nintendo has drawn the ire of the PETA organization. In the soon to be released Mario wears a fur suit of Tanooki fur. PETA is furious that the Nintendo corporation has used this image in a game. While the Tanooki suit was introduced in 1988, many people have changed their attitudes towards animal cruelty over the past 20 years. And we have a great deal more information about this cruel trade.
PETA has a mock game on their site that has the tanooki chasing Mario who has stolen his skin. They also have an undercover video taken in China of these poor animals being bludgeoned and skinned. Some of the animals are shown suffering and one is shown skinned alive.
http://features.peta.org/mario-kills-tanooki/
I was not aware of these animals until now. They are big business in the fur trade around the world. Japan, Russia and China are the principal purveyors of this cruelly obtained fur. Apparently this fur trade has been going on for quite some time and is a billion dollar business in China which is reputed to “farm” about 1.5 million of these unfortunate creatures. Some garments have been marketed in N. America as having “faux fur” trim but are actually tanooki fur(tanuki) or raccoon dogs. When this fur is marketed as fur it may be called murmansky fur.
Canines Corner has an excerpt on its page which illustrates the problem.

“DALLAS - J.C. Penney Co. removed some fur-trimmed coats from its racks around Christmas after animal-rights activists objected that the fur came from wild dogs in China.  Last week, the department-store company put the coats back on the racks — but only after directing employees to use marker pens to blot out the line on the label that identified the trim as raccoon fur. The fur-collared leather coats were sold under the house brands St. John’s Bay and a.n.a., and by this week they were marked down at a Penney’s in Dallas from the original $349.99 to $74.99. About two dozen remained.” Source: Activists rip Penneys over dog-fur coats

That site has extensive information about the dog fur trade.
If you are buying a garment trimmed in “faux fur”, check it carefully. Price is no indication of whether the trim is made from synthetic fibres or from these horribly treated animals.

Following is the link to a very graphic video showing these animals being killed. 
WARNING: extremely graphic, I could not watch much of it. Truly horrible.

Location: Norfolk, VA, USA

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