Animal rights group calls for boycott of online game

BATANGAS CITY—Animal rights advocates are waging an online campaign against a gaming site that, they say, promotes cruelty to animals.

Rochelle Regodon, campaign manager of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) Asia Pacific, said online gamers should boycott YetiSport’s Flamingo Drive for its “insensitive and irresponsible” depiction of animals.

“The violence toward animals displayed in this video game may not have been real, but it makes light of a very serious issue,” Regodon said in an e-mail to the Inquirer.

Jerry, a gaming enthusiast who asked not to be fully identified, encountered Flamingo Drive Part 5 two months ago out of curiosity, but in the end, he said, he realized that the game makes it “fun” to be cruel to animals.

The goal of the game is to finish each stage by getting Pingu (the Penguin) past all the hurdles, such as the giraffes, elephants, snakes and trees, to make the greatest distances. The catch here is: the white ape would use the flamingo as the golf club and hit the penguin that serves as the ball to reach a certain distance until they reach the finish line.

“Playing this sounds simple, but if you will analyze how it works, you will realize that it promotes cruelty to animals,” Jerry said.

Regodon said it was inexcusable to depict the mistreatment of animals for the sake of entertainment.

She encouraged gaming enthusiasts to write to the producer of the game or launch a campaign to boycott playing it.  Her group, Peta, is the world’s largest animal rights organization dedicated to establish and protect the rights of all animals.

“A government body that shall evaluate games like this, whether good or not, should be formed so that the youth would be spared from the effects that this game brings,” Jerry said.